Amy Williams gave the crowd at the Peacock gym a bit of a scare Saturday afternoon.
After going down favouring her ankle, the Peacock senior post walked off her injury and continued to terrorize the Regina Luther Lions.
Williams finished with 44 points as the Toilers punched their ticket to Hoopla in Saskatoon with an 89-56 win over the Lions in the SHSAA regional final in Moose Jaw.
“We had to step it up another notch. Luther pushed our team to a level we hadn’t been to,” said Peacock coach Renee Verge. “I’ve always said the character of a team shows through adversity and we had a little adversity.”
The Toilers led 55-46 when Williams went down after rolling her ankle. The pesky Lions weren’t going away and Verge called a time out to settle her troops down.
“We looked up at the score clock and were only up by (nine). I called the time out and put it back in the girls hands and they really showed a lot of character in the end of the third and into the fourth,” said Verge.
“You’re always better for having gone through that. I think heading to Hoopla next weekend, it’s really important that we had to work as hard as we did.”
Williams came back on the floor after the time out and she scored and was fouled on the next trip down the floor and then blocked Luther’s Jenn Tran when she thought she had a fast-break lay-up.
“I’m not sure what happened. I think I just tripped and banged my ankle,” said Williams who said she was happy to try to exploit the Toilers’ size advantage in the paint. “It was a nice advantage for us because they didn’t have much height. Me and Caitlyn (Kitts) are both pretty tall and we were able to own the boards.
“I’m excited to go Hoopla, especially in my senior year.”
The Toilers went on a 15-1 run to close out the third quarter and scored the first five points on the fourth quarter to take a 75-47 lead.
Kitts added nine points as the Toilers dominated the paint.
Libby Epoch scored 10 points, while Megan Crone added nine for the Toilers.
Hanna Dunnigan scored 15 points for the Lions, while Rose Manoah added a dozen points.
Peacock will play North Battleford Comp. in one of the Hoopla semifinals. The winner will meet either Notre Dame or Meadow Lake Carpenter in the final.
In their 4A consolation game, Central beat Prince Albert St. Mary 44-28.
Central held St. Mary to only seven points in the first half. Diana Lumbala led the Cyclones with 13 points.
In the 3A girls regional in Caronport, the host Cougars booked their trip to Hoopla in Saskatoon with a 65-37 win over Regina Christian.
Caronport’s pressure helped stake them to a 24-11 lead after the first quarter. They extended the lead to 20 at the half and used their depth to help carry them the rest of the way.
Leah Hundeby led the Cougars in scoring with 15 points. Laine McLaren had 16 points to lead Regina.
The news wasn’t as good for Assiniboia who lost 83-55 to Clavet in their 3A regional final.
Clavet led by 11 points at the half before pulling away. Ashley Hall scored 16 points to lead the Rockets. Jillian Ehman scored 26 points for Clavet.
Caronport will face Lumsden in the Hoopla semifinal, while Clavet will meet Indian Head.
