The last year the name Kelly Road was engraved on the North Central zone double-A girls basketball trophy, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney introduced Canadians to the Goods and Services Tax, the Soviet Union broke up, and in the world’s most popular movie, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, had Arnold Schwarzenegger uttering his famous line, “Hasta la vista, baby.”
See you later.
Back then, who would have thought it would have taken 31 years for the team then known as the Kelly Road Roadunners to see that trophy in their hands again.
The Shas Ti Kelly Road Grizzlies ended that championship drought Saturday morning in their home gym when they defeated the Nechako Valley Vikings of Vanderhoof 73-61. Combined with their 62-60 win over the Vikings Friday night in Vanderhoof, the Grizzlies swept the best-of-three series 2-0 and will represent their zone at the double-A provincial championship in Langley, March 2-5.
“This is so exciting, it was a really great set of games and it was a great team to play against, they played really well and we really had to work for it,” said Grizzlies guard Breanna Skelly.
“It was definitely a bit more comfortable this game. It was a bit of scramble at the end of (Friday’s) game. We played more of our game today and we really tied to keep control and manage turnover, which has been our Achilles heel all season and I think we did a better job of that than we did yesterday.”
Unlike the first game when they had to come back from a five-point halftime deficit, the Grizzlies took over the lead early, building 22-12 edge in the first quarter, and stayed ahead for the rest of the game.
“I’m super-excited, I’m really proud of everyone on our team,” said Grizzlies senior guard Jenny Graham-Smith. “We have a couple of first-year players and we haven’t had a super-developed sports program like some other schools in Prince George, so I’m really hoping this is the start of something good for our school.
“It’s been tough coming into this season after being off for two years because there’s a lot of people coming up from younger grads that haven’t had that playing experience, so everyone was a bit rusty coming into the season.
Graham-Smith spiced the Grizzlies offence with a game-high 26 points. MVP Breanna Day hit for 10 points and was a buzzsaw hauling in rebounds and creating turnovers, while Maria Sampson also had a standout effort with an eight-point game.
“This game, we willed it to happen,” said Graham-Smith. “We want to go to provincials. It was so nice to have the crowd again. It’s so different to have that support, when you make a basket and the crowd goes crazy, it’s so much more uplifting because even if you’re in a rut, the crowd is with you.”
Aside from the city league games and only a couple of tournaments, the Grizzlies haven’t had a chance to go on any extended trips like the one they’ve now guaranteed themselves with their zone title.
“We didn’t know what we’d have this year as a team but the girls all came together and battled through such a crazy season, with COVID and interruptions and no fans, it’s been really difficult on them,” said Grizzlies head coach Randy Strybos. “The parents have been so supportive, the school has been amazing, and the girls worked so hard to get to this point. They just wanted it and were able to gut it out in the final against a really tough NCSS team.
“We took the opportunities to score and (the Vikings) got into a bit off foul trouble. We knew they would have to go hard to try to contain us and so we just tried to stay calm tried to run our offence and the girls responded.”
Nechako Valley, the defending champions from 2020, started the fourth quarter trailing 51-42 but made it a tense two-score game when Natalia Erickson hit a layup to cut the gap to 57-52 with 6:25 left. Graham-Smith and Vikings forward Charlee McIntyre traded field goals and it was still a five-point game with four minutes on the clock when Erickson became the third Viking starter to foul out and McIntyre joined her on the bench a couple minutes later when she drew her fifth foul. Gloria Butcher then hit some clutch free throws down the stretch and the Grizzlies ran out the clock.
Although they both played in a tournament in Fort St. James last week, the teams hadn’t played each other all season. The Vikings play a physical game and the Grizzlies stood up to it well.
“It was really tough, the teams are evenly-matched and it came down to a couple air-mails and we just couldn’t buy a bucket there for a while,” said Vikings coach Tom Kelly. “Today we played really well again and we just couldn’t get a bucket to drop.”
McIntyre led Nechako Valley with 21 points and Erickson finished with 14.
It’s actually been 30 years between titles for Kelly Road. The Roadrunners won the triple-A zone championship in 1992.
About 100 parents, family members and friends watched the game from the stands, allowed to be spectators for first time since December, when a province-wide ban on crowds for high school events was ordered by health authorities to combat COVID. That ban was lifted Saturday and schools are now allowed 50 per cent capacity for masked spectators.
“It’s been a long dry spell and a lost year for the girls,” said Grizzlies assistant coach Tracie Skelly. “We missed last year and this year has been a struggle to get games in and get us ready for this and we’re proud of the girls. They laid it out every single game, we’ve never had a lack of effort.
“I felt very fortunate to be a part of it and to watch my kid (Breanna Skelly) play because even though she’s in Grade 11 this is her last year at the school because she’s going away to school (in Switzerland) next year. We tried everything we could to get parents in to get a peak within the rules and your heart breaks for these people, at least they got the final game.”
All but two of the Vikings have now finished their high school careers and six of the Grizzlies are in their Grade 12 season. Colleen Hedstrom, whose daughter Caitlyn is one of the graduating Grizzlies, was relieved to have the chance to see her play again in her final home game.
“At the beginning of the season I was able to watch her,” said Colleen. “It’s just not the same when you can’t watch, it sucks.”
McIntyre and Aliyah Marks of Nechako Valley were selected for the all-star team along with Grizzlies Graham-Smith and Airi Rustad. The Grizzlies roster also includes Katrina Strybos, Helaina Lang and Danny Thompson.
