Clippers edge Pandas for South Zone banner

By Lethbridge Herald on March 10, 2025.

Herald Photo by Justin Seward The LCI Clippers varsity girls basketball team celebrate after winning the South Zone banner at 1st Choice Savings Centre on Saturday.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The  LCI Clippers varsity girls basketball team were able to pull off a 62-56 win over the Magrath Pandas to capture the 4A South Zone Basketball Championship  banner at 1st Choice Savings Centre on Saturday afternoon in front of a passionate crowd.

“It’s very rewarding,” said Darren Miller, LCI head coach.

“I know there’s a lot of expectation on them and this is something that was supposed to happen for them, but regardless they get the job done. And a lot of my girls have been here for three years now and this is their first one and their composure really paid off in the end.”

Darren spoke about the team’s game down the stretch.

“They did things right and were able to close the door and put the win away,” said Darren.

The Clippers ability to play together is what brought them success.

“There’s been times where all of sudden girls try and put too much on their own shoulders and try to shoulder the responsibility themselves,” said Darren.

“But once we started trusting each other and using each other in the open court, things just  look easy for them.”

Mishynn Miller said it’s amazing.

“Just the atmosphere of southern Alberta zones and having our friends come out and being able to come out on top this year, it’s just amazing,” said Mishynn.

Mishynn saw the keys to victory being the care of the basketball, having trust in their defence and not taking as many fouls.

“Just using each other to our abilities and then we knew we could do it,” said Mishynn.

The Pandas were trying to go for steals and with that the Clippers had to find away to limit their turnovers.

“In the first half, I feel like we had so many turnovers but in the second half we were able to stay a little more calm and be able to keep the ball in our court,” said Madison Kutsch.

Kutsch has been working for a zone win for a while.

“I’ve been working for this ever since I was little and it’s so nice to finally come out and win,” said Kutsch.

LCI beat Raymond 66-48 in the semi-final to get to the zone final.

Cardston beat Raymond 93-92 in the third place game.

The Clippers now are preparing to host one of four regional tournaments across the province this weekend.

Each of the four regionals have four teams in them.

“Most (of) the teams that are ranked we have seen,” said Darren.

“There’s a couple that we haven’t seen. So I definitely (will) be looking at game tape and doing my research.”

LCI host their first regional game against Holy Trinity Academy on Friday at 5 p.m. and the winner of that game will play the winner of Salisbury and Western Canada Game in the South Regional final on Saturday at LCI and that winner will move on to the final four provincials in Calgary a week later.

Magrath is competing in the Calgary Regional, Raymond is in the Foothills Regional and Cardston is in the Edmonton Regional.