Written By Brian Lockhart

The Centre Dufferin District High School Royals senior girls' basketball team went to the District 4 championship final game against the Erin District High School Raiders on Tuesday, Nov. 15.

The Royals had a decent year finishing the regular season in fourth place with a 5-5 record.

It was the playoffs that made a huge difference for the squad when they defeated the first-place team from Wellington Heights Secondary School 25-16 in the semi-final round. The upset earned the Royals the right to advance to the final game against Erin.

Erin was the second-place team in this year's line-up. They won their semi-final over the third-place Emmanuel Christian High School team.

The final game got underway in the gym in Erin. It was a slow start to the final with both teams having little success scoring early on. The first quarter ended with the Royals trailing 6-2.

At the half, it was still a low-scoring game with Erin leading 9-4.

Both teams started working harder on offence when they returned for the third quarter.

When the buzzer sounded to end the quarter, Erin was still in the lead with a 15-10 score.

The Royals gave a late-game push but couldn't close the scoring gap and had to settle for a 27-16 loss.

“I thought we had a good season,” said Royals' player Hannah Foulger, after the championship match. “I think we really improved. This [Erin gym] is where we had our very first game this season, and we finished the season with so much improvement in this game. I think both teams had really good defence. The last time we played them, they got a lot more points so that just shows how much our defence has improved.”

Teammate, Ella Cruikshank, said she thought the team played well despite not getting a lot of points on the scoreboard.

“Everybody was working really hard, it was a great team effort,” Ella said. “We needed to get some more shots up and get some points, but it was a really good team game. It was a pretty rough game. We kept going to the line and thankfully we got a few points there. We lost to this team at the start of the year so it was great to come back and have a close game. The team played really well, and we've got a great coach – Mr. Barlow.”

The Erin Raiders will now go on to represent District 4 at regional competition at CWOSSA.