Walnut Grove and Carson Graham are each TBI-bound this December. (Howard Tsumura, Varsity Letters photo)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

TBI 2017: No. 1 Abby Panthers lead way, our 16-team girls hoops field now complete

LANGLEY — The field for the 2017 Tsumura Basketball Invitational senior girls basketball tournament is now complete.

On Monday, Victoria’s Claremont Spartans gave us the thumbs up to complete our 16-team field, and both I and tournament director Christina Brown are thrilled at the calibre of teams we will once again be bringing to the Langley Events Centre for our pre-Christmas classic, which runs Dec. 14-16.

The Lenz Sisters, Sienna and Marin, will lead the preseason Triple A No. 1 Abbotsford Panthers into the TBI.

No. 3 Walnut Grove of Langley will be led by scoring guard Tavia Rowell, while a young core of No. 4-ranked Brookswood Bobcats, also from Langley, will be led by the likes of rising Grade 11 guard Jenna Dick.

No. 5 Argyle of North Vancouver features rising senior guard Georgia Swant.

Surrey’s defending B.C. champion Lord Tweedsmuir Panthers, ranked No. 7, are also a part of the mix, as are the No. 8 Carson Graham Eagles of North Vancouver, and No. 10 McMath Wildcats of Richmond.

Honourable mention Triple A teams taking part: Port Moody’s Heritage Woods Kodiaks, Port Coquitlam’s Riverside Rapids, Claremont, and Surrey’s Sullivan Heights Stars.

The rest of our field: Double-A runners-up South Kamloops Titans, Vancouver’s Britannia Bruins, Surrey’s Semiahmoo Totems, Chilliwack’s G.W. Graham Grizzlies and North Vancouver’s St. Thomas Aquinas Fighting Saints, moving up to senior after winning the B.C. junior title in March.

The boys TBI runs Dec. 7-9.

It will be two weeks of exciting senior varsity basketball to usher in the new season and we’ll be previewing every team at both tournaments in the run up to TBI 2017.

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