Britannia's Jewel Leeson (right) and Elana Corrado of Okanagan Mission met in the 2019 TBI finals last December. In the first rankings of 2020 both teams are among the elite in the B.C. Triple-A and Double-A rankings released Wednesday. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

B.C. senior girls basketball rankings 01.15.20: The decade’s first Top 10s find a familiar Fab Four sitting atop the heap

LANGLEY — No. 1’s held firm across all four tiers as B.C. senior girls high school basketball issued its first Top 10 rankings of 2020. On a snow day Wednesday, here’s a look at all of the numbers:

Riverside's star Grade 11 guard Sammy Shields is guarded by Lord Tweedsmuir's Alyza Aikins during 2019 TBI action, Dec. 14 at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

Sammy Shields: A veteran at last, Riverside’s star guard leads a new core of Rapids into Centennial’s midseason Top 10 Shoot-Out showcase

PORT COQUITLAM — When you’re dropping 38 points in a senior varsity game as an eighth grader, the way Sammy Shields did back in the 2016-17 season, it seems a given that the greatest strength of the Riverside Rapids’ Grade 11 standout guard is her scoring ability.And while it’s hard to make a case that […]

Centennial's Dom Parolin was a shot-blocking machine in Saturday's Legal Beagle title-game win over Burnaby South and was later picked Top Defensive Player. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Duchess Park's talented 6-foot-4 Grade 11 guard Caleb Lyons scored 35 points Saturday to help his team top G.W. Graham and win the 2020 Chancellor title. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

Caleb the Conqueror: Duchess Park’s Caleb Lyons scores 35, leads No. 2 Condors past No. 1 GWG Grizz in Chancellor 2020 final

BURNABY — Caleb Lyons has a way of making every gym his own home, sweet home.This week, it was the spacious, well-lit and energetic confines at Burnaby’s St. Thomas More Collegiate where he made himself comfy.In fact after he knocked down six triples, scored a team-high 35 points and was picked the MVP of STM’s […]

St. George's players (from left) Max Mache and Luke Dixon try to deny Terry Fox Ravens' scrappy Jake McFarland for a loose ball during third-fifth game Saturday at the 31st annual Terry Fox Legal Beagle in PoCo. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

Legal Beagle 2020: As Saints grab bronze ‘brass’ ring with win over pesky Ravens, coach sees promise of 2018’s B.C. JV champs

PORT COQUITLAM — When it comes to his Class of 2020 seniors, St. George’s Saints head coach Guy da Silva knows all about their championship DNA.

Holy Cross' Brent Padilla (centre) finds his way past Kelowna's Jarred Taylor (left) and Taye Parmar during 2020 Legal Beagle consolation final in PoCo. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

Legal Beagle 2020: No. 2 Owls finally slip, yet Kelowna shows its resiliency with win fourth-place win over Holy Cross

PORT COQUITLAM — Harry Parmar moved his arm in an upward arc.“Very rarely does a season go like this,” he said, his body language indicating one upward step after another. “We hit a dip, and now we’ve got to get out of it.” By the time Parmar’s team, the Quad-A No. 2-ranked Kelowna Owls, left PoCo […]

Dubbed the 'The Kid in the Corner' by Tupper head coach Jeff Gourley after he hit four second-half triples against the Tigers on Friday, G.W. Graham Grizzlies' guard Cairo Almarez was the man of the moment. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

Chancellor 2020: No. 1 G.W. Graham set to face No. 2 Duchess Park in tourney final after Grizz’s ‘Kid in the corner’ dials from distance to top No. 5 Tupper

BURNABY — Earlier this week, for just a fraction of a second, G.W. Graham Grizzlies head coach Jake Mouritzen wondered aloud if he should be revealing to the media just how voluminous a three-point shooting threat his senior guard Cairo Almarez has been this season.In the end, however, as his Triple A No. 1-ranked team […]

North Delta's Sagar Ranouta (left) grimaces under the defensive watch of Duchess Park's Benjamin Dyck on Friday in the Chancellor Invitational semifinals. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

Chancellor 2020: No lack of motivation for No. 2 Duchess Park! Condors top North Delta Huskies in first meeting since 2019 B.C. Final Four

BURNABY — You didn’t need Duchess Park head coach Jordan Yu to provide further details following his team’s semifinal clash Friday night here against the North Delta Huskies at St. Thomas More’s Chancellor 2020. Some games are pretty hard to forget.

Brookswood's Evan Kimm (right) drives on Byrne Creek's Darius Morrison en route to scoring two of his 21 points Friday at the STM Chancellor. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

Chancellor 2020: Tough Eastern Valley AAA foes give Langley’s Brookswood Bobcats a fourth-quarter edge against Byrne Creek

BURNABY — Langley’s Brookswood Bobcats rallied down the stretch of the second half to edge Burnaby’s Byrne Creek Bulldogs 91-88 and keep alive their hopes of a fifth place finish here at the St. Thomas More Chancellor Invitational.The victory propels Brookswood into Saturday’s fifth-sixth final (2:30 p.m.) against Surrey’s Fleetwood Park Dragons, an earlier 61-44 […]

Playing it tough in the paint was the key Thursday for the Simon Fraser Clan, and sophomore Sophie Klassen was one of the leading lights in that regard as her team topped visiting Seattle Pacific at the West Gym. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Women's Basketball

Even without its magical three-ball, Simon Fraser women sit at 4-1! Clan turn rebound-hungry in impressive win over Seattle Pacific Falcons

BURNABY — The only thing certain about 2019-20 Simon Fraser Clan women’s basketball team at the quarter-pole of their league schedule is that they sit third in the 11-team Great Northwest Athletic Conference standings with a 4-1 record.That’s first and foremost, and in the minds of Clan fans, more than soothing enough despite the fact […]