D8 Finals: Cavs Seek First Junior Title

The Woodland Cavaliers are on the verge of history.

The Cavs, the #1 seed and undefeated in District 8 play this season, enter the championship final against St. Benedict (game at Resurrection, 6pm) on a roll.

Another win tonight and Woodland would have the school's first girls' basketball title in history.

In fact, Woodland has only won one basketball title (boys or girls) -- a Midget Boys' crown back in the first year of District 8, 1989-90.

Standing in their way will be St. Benedict, the #3 seed.  St. Benedict "upset" Resurrection in the semifinals, ending Resurrection's chance at a 6th straight D8 Junior crown.

Woodland might have actually preferred to face Rez in the final, given that they've had better results against the Phoenix than the Saints this season.

Woodland's wins over St. Benedict came by 11 points at home, and then by just four points (42-38) on the road exactly one month ago today.

I certainly think this will be the closer of the two finals, but the duo of Jenna Duimering and Sydney VanderHoef should be able to deliver Woodland's first title to Breslau.

The Cavs will also play at "A" CWOSSA this weekend, while St. Benedict will be D8's representative at "AAA" CWOSSA.

Prediction:  Woodland 39, St. Benedict 30

On the senior side, Resurrection will be looking for the 7th D8 Senior title in school history, and fourth championship in the last five years.

Rez was victorious by comfortable margins (56-22 and 53-26) during the regular season, so it's safe to say that they are considerable favourites entering play tonight (game time is 8pm at Rez).

Of course, anything can happen in a one-game scenario and St. Benedict does have three capable scorers in Julia Mascarenhas, Maya Danis, and Alex Webb.

If the Saints can keep things close, especially early on, it could get interesting.  The Phoenix haven't had a close game in weeks, so it would be worth noting how they handle it should that be the case.

Of course, Rez features one of the best backcourts in CWOSSA (Krissia Vasquez & Meghan Sharpe) while grade ten guard Sydney Gucker-Wickie is another next-level talent.  Though the Phoenix aren't deep (numbers wise), they can spread around the scoring with the best of them.

The winner of this game advances to this weekend's CWOSSA "AAA" tournament in Waterloo.

Prediction:  Resurrection 49, St. Benedict 31