Terry Fox point guard Cerys Merton and the rest of the Ravens maintained their position at No. 2 in the final B.C. Girls Quad-A poll of 2019. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

B.C. senior girls basketball rankings 12.18.19: We ring out the year with the BCSSGBA’s final Tops 10’s of 2019!

Here are the final B.C. Secondary Schools Girls Basketball Association Top 10 rankings of 2019. Triple-A is not issuing a poll this week.Rankings will return on Jan. 8.BASKETBALLSENIOR GIRLSTOP 10QUAD A1 Semiahmoo Totems (White Rock) (66 points) (LW-1)2 Terry Fox Ravens (Port Coquitlam) (41) (2) 3 Walnut Grove Gators (Langley) (40) (3)4 Kelowna Owls (Kelowna) (38) […]

Britannia's Tiana Sacco battles a pair of Yale Lions in Friday semifinal play from the 2019 TBI. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

B.C. Girls All-Tier Top 20 Power Rankings! So, who are B.C.’s best hoops squads regardless of tier? Here is it, unofficially and in the name of fun!

LANGLEY — It was the perfect weekend from which to form the perfect conversation about the state B.C. senior girls high school basketball.The precise topic?If you combined all four of the province’s tiers into one stew, what would your overall Top 20 look like?A couple of insiders gave me what they thought the bones of […]

TBI MVP Lily Pink (rear, left) and late-game heroine Makenna Jacklin (rear, right) celebrate along with the rest of their Okanagan Mission teammates following championship win over Britannia at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

A SUNDAY READ: Okanagan Mission tops Britannia as a most illuminating TBI 2019 sheds new light on the state of B.C. girls high school hoops

LANGLEY — For the first few days of the 2019 Tsumura Basketball Invitational, Makenna Jacklin did a really good job of convincing herself that she’d lost her jump shooting mojo.

Langley Christian's Sydney Bradshaw finds a gap in the Kelowna defence during third-place game at 2019 TBI, Saturday at the LEC. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

TBI 2019 Girls: Double-A Langley Christian tops Quad-A Kelowna for third as BC’s largest tier denied gold, silver and bronze

LANGLEY — When the 2019 girls Tsumura Basketball Invitational tipped off Wednesday afternoon, eight teams from the B.C. Top 10 Quad-A rankings, issued that very day, were among the event’s 20-team field.By the time Saturday’s third-place game concluded however, there was not a single team left standing in the quest for gold, silver or bronze […]

Walnut Groves Anneke Cairnie (left) eyes the basket in Saturday's TBI 2019 fifth-place game while being guarded by R.A. McMath's Hope Chan. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

TBI 2019 Girls: Walnut Grove Gators top McMath for fifth place as 2019-20 looks like the start of ‘deja vu, all over again’ for Langley power

LANGLEY — If it was a bit of an unfamiliar place for the Walnut Grove Gators to be on a mid-December Saturday, it’s understandable.For the past two years, the Gators have walked off the court here at the Langley Events Centre as champions of the Tsumura Basketball Invitational senior girls tournament, first behind the MVP […]

No one at Tsumura Basketball 2019 has been able to keep Britannia's Surprise Munie under wraps, including Kelowna's Paris Kirk (left) and Rylee Semeniuk. Britannia rode a huge scoring performance from Munie to a win and a berth in Saturday's championship final against the Okanagan Mission Huskies. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

TBI 2019 Final Four: In a zone of their own, Surprise and the Cinderella Britannia Bruins top Kelowna Owls for title-game berth

LANGLEY — It’s wrong to say that the Britannia Bruins were considered a long shot heading into the 2019 Tsumura Basketball Invitational.Yet hands up if you had the East Vancouver Double-A underdogs knocking off, in order, Quad-A No. 6 Riverside, Quad-A No. 7 Yale, and Quad-A No. 8 Kelowna?Of course you did. We all did.Hardly.Yet […]

OKM's Tatum Wade (left) rises in the paint past Langley Christian's Keira Hummelman during TBI Final Four Friday at the LEC. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

TBI 2019 Final Four: On a mission, Kelowna’s OKM Huskies top Langley Christian to earn tourney-title shot Saturday!

LANGLEY — Oh my… how their star has risen over the nine-plus months.Last season, Kelowna’s Okanagan Mission Huskies had to beat Surrey’s Lord Tweedsmuir Panthers on a neutral court in Merritt in a sudden-elimination, last-chance to the Big Dance clash just to qualify for the B.C. Triple-A championship tournament.They won that game, and ever since […]

Surprise Munie was as prolific as ever on the offensive end, but the Brit star had a shout out for the Bruins' defence in its Elite 8 TBI win over the Yale Lions. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

TBI 2019 Elite 8: Britannia’s Double-A Bruins show a depth of versatility, adaptability in taming Yale’s Quad-A Lions

LANGLEY — They aren’t as recognized as their fellow senior Bruins Surprise Munie and Shemaiah Abatayo, yet you could almost say that Britannia’s emerging frontcourt duo of Tiana Sacco and Lagi Vaa hold a big key to the ultimate versatility and fortunes of East Vancouver’s finest.

Kelowna's Nicole Torozan (centre) scoots through the paint against McMath's Liz Kennedy (left) and Kate Carkner. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

TBI 2019 Elite Eight: Depth, shooting, athleticism carry Kelowna Owls to decisive win over Richmond’s R.A. McMath Wildcats

LANGLEY — The 2019-20 Kelowna Owls are taking head coach Darren Semeniuk on a trip down memory lane.With a bevy of guards and an emerging pair of post players, the current edition that Semeniuk has cajoled into the Tsumura Basketball Invitational semifinals tonight (8:15 p.m.) following its decisive 70-39 win over the R.A. McMath Wildcats […]

Battling in the paint to score two of her eight points is Langley Christian's Kathryn New. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

TBI 2019 Elite Eight: Lightning strikes in defensive battle! Double A No. 1 LCS tops STM, faces Triple-A No. 1 OKM in Friday night Final Four

LANGLEY — It wasn’t too long ago when the Langley Christian Lighting were competing in the province’s small school Single-A tier.Tonight (6:45 p.m.), the Lightning face Kelowna’s Okanagan Mission Huskies in the TBI 2019 semifinals, sitting a win away from a berth in Saturday’s championship final.Maintaining poise and patience, and ultimately finding ways to execute […]