Heather Wright/The Independent

The unbeaten North Lambton Eagles are Lambton-Kent Senior Girls’ basketball champions.

The Eagles beat the John McGregor Panthers 53-31 Friday at the Forest high school.

Alexis Wice led the Eagles with 17 points, Lainie Rintoul had nine and Lily Heynbergen had seven in the victory.

Coaches Adam Willemse, Jacinda Sanders and Tara Petrus, all alumni and teachers at North Lambton, say this is the most talented team they have ever coached.

“I look around, I see big cousins of kids who played here before, sisters of kids who played here before. There’s former players watching this, like it’s kind of a pass it on thing; it has just really paid off,” says Willemse.

“The girls come here want to play – all the girls here want to play basketball.

“We get good athletes and like we were saying in there (the dressing room), this is probably the most talented group of girls this school has seen in my town.”

What makes them so good? “They work together. They trust each other,” said an emotional Sanders.

“If you had seen them play, when they were in Grade Nine – how far they’ve come, and they’re willing to work as a team. They’ll move the ball down the court. They’ll pass it underneath. They don’t care who gets the points, like, they really don’t…they just trust each other.”

North Lambton will play the winner of the Windsor-Essex County final Nov. 12 at 7 pm for the SWOSSA title.