The Burnaby South Rebels wanted a shot at crosstown rival New Westminster, but a first BurWest title banner will do.

Burnaby South raced out to a 13-2 start and then settled for a 66-47 victory over the steadily improving young Burnaby Mountain Lions in the girls' basketball banner final at South on Wednesday.

Manpreet Nijjar led the way with a game-high 23 points, while Grade 9 phe-nom Jacey Bailey topped the Lions with 20 points.

"We wanted New West. Every year we lost to them and we wanted just one moment, but holdiing that banner is just as good," said Nijjar, who was named a league all-star and was the recipient of numerous setups from fellow all-star Pavneet Brar.

Brar netted 12 points for the Rebels, while fellow senior Stephanie Labbé chipped in with 17 points, including a pair of three-pointers.

The win gave South a bye to the second round of the Crehan Cup Lower Mainland girls' tournament.

The Rebels will open up the provincial qualifying tournament against the winner of Point Grey and Burnaby Mountain at Kitsilano on Monday. Game time is 8: 15 p.m.

The No.9-ranked Rebels will host the final rounds of the Crehan Cup from Feb. 21 to 23.

The top-four-finishing school teams will earn berths into the B.C. AAA girls' basketball champioinships. A fifth team will become a wild-card possibility.

South will be up against No. 3 Handsworth, No. 5 Argyle and honourable mention Steveston-Lonon at the Mainland championships.

In the consolation final, New Westminster broke open a close game in the fourth quarter to defeat Byrne Creek 61-49 at South.

New West was upset 70-50 by Mountain in the semifinals held on Tuesday.

"It was definitely a bit different this year," said Hyacks captain Amanda Zacharuk, who led the Hyacks with 18 points.

Playing without their high-scoring senior guard, Meriam Ali, New West outscored the Bulldogs 209 in the final quarter.

"We perservered," said Zacharuk, who punctuated the win with a big three in the final minute-and-a-half. "It does show we're capable of pulling through and putting up a good fight."

Byrne Creek put up a good fight, too, keeping the game within a bucket or two for the first three quarters before running out of gas in the final 10 minutes.

Dina Deng led all scorers with 21 points.

In BurWest boys' semi-final play, third-place finishing Burnaby Mountain upset Burnaby South 71-66 to move on to the banner final against regular season champion and No. 10ranked Byrne Creek.

The Bulldogs defeated New Westminster 94-69 in the other semifinal.

The boys' finals take place at Byrne Creek today (Friday), beginning at 3: 30 p.m. with South taking on New West.

Byrne Creek and Mountain follow in the banner final with the BNW No. 1 berth at stake.