LANGLEY TOWNSHIP — Welcome to Day 1 of the 2026 B.C. senior girls Triple-A basketball championship, coming to you from the Langley Events Centre.
Please check back here reguarly as our team of writers provide first-hand game coverage from the eight sudden-elimination games being contested at this tier.
Thanks for your loyalty!
Howard Tsumura
TRIPLE A
NO. 2 LANGLEY CHRISTIAN 81 NO. 15 ALBERNI DISTRICT 24
LANGLEY TOWNSHIP — It’s going to take more than a scoreless first quarter to dampen the spirit of the Alberni District Storm.
“Well, it’s whether you can face adversity,” said Storm head coach Neelan Parmar after his Vancouver Island No. 3 squad battled early nerves, falling behind the No. 2 seed Langley Christian Lightning 21-0 after the opening frame and making a free throw for their first points of game to trail 23-1 early in the second.
“You try to see who’s got some mettle,” continued Parmar, whose team fell 81-24. “Who can actually do something about it? So part of it was calming down.”
Of course no one in the field of 16 would want to draw the likes of the Lightning in the opening round.
With terrific guard play and a dominant interior presence in 6-foot-3 Grade 11 Gaby Vis, LCS is showing no signs of struggle in making the jump up in tiers to the Triple-A ranks this season.
Georgia Van see Waarde scored a game-high 17 points for the winners and Vis poured home 14, points as 11 different Lightning hit the scoresheet. Guard Payton Brunoro had 14 points.
“I think they are a bigger team, so the length was causing us problems,” added Parmar. “So as soon as I made a couple adjustments, we were able to get some scoring opportunities, and some of us scored, and I think that settled us down a little bit. I think then the game flow got into its normal cadence, and we did what we could do.”
The Storm, formerly known as the Armada, were led by the eight points of Kayla Miguez. Amaya Parmar added five points, while Sara Mendelin had four.
The Lightning will advance on the championship side of the draw to face the winner of the Sa-Hali vs. Little Flower clash in a 10:15 a.m. clash Thursday morning back on Centre Court at the Langley Events Centre.
NO. 7 SA-HALI 52 NO. 10 LITTLE FLOWER 31
LANGLEY TOWNSHIP — It was a year ago this week that Kamloops’ Sa-Hali Sabres came within a hair of achieving the dream finish of every team playing here at the B.C. senior girls Triple-A championships.
It was Saturday afternoon under brightest lights and on the highest stage of the championship final inside the LEC’s Arena Bowl, and there were the Sabres facing the MEI Eagles for the title.
In the end, Abbotsford’s Eagles rallied for a 50-49 win, and to the victor went the spoils.
And although a lot thinner in terms of numbers within its senior class this season, the No. 7-seed Sabres are bringing the same approach that got them to last season’s final to the 2026 tournament, which opened Wednesday with a hard-earned 52-31 win over the No. 10 Little Flower Academy Angels of Vancouver.
Page through this season’s full-colour tourney program and you see Sa-Hali’s Iyin Aina, The team’s hard-nosed 5-foot-5 senior point guard, holding her trophy after being named to the tourney’s first all-star team.
Already at the LEC this season with her Sa-Hali teammates in December as part of the Tsumura Basketball Invitational’s Super 16 pool, Aina suffered a nagging lower body injury that it has taken her until right about now to finally manage to shake.
On Wednesday, after scoring 14 points in more of a point guard role this season, Aina was her usual energetic self, and optimistic about leading her team in her final run at BC’s.
“Definitely set me personally back a bit, but I just had to work hard, get the rehab, get the recovery so I could come back and be here for my team,” she said after being named the Player of the Game. “And definitely the coaches and the teammates helping me out. They always just push me and motivate me to want to work 10 times harder.”
That multiple might not be an exaggeration.
And for his part, Sabres’head coach Jody Vosper admits that having a senior with the kind of work ethic Aina has, helps set a high bar of expectation at an event as big as the Final 16.
“She was a big reason we were successful last year and I think she just brings, like, she’s played senior since grade nine so she’s been on these courts for a while,” said Vosper of Aina, who next season is set to play for the UBC Okanagan Heat in Kelowna. “So she’s a steady influence and, like, she’s hungry. She wants to be successful. So she brings that competitiveness that helps lead us. She plays so hard. She hits the floor a lot. You can see that. She probably went down four times today.”
Little Flower impressed throughout with its determined action.
“It was battle and they made it difficult for us to score,” said Vosper of the Angels, who trailed the eventual winners 30-20 at the half. “So we gotta be a little bit better tomorrow at our offence and execution. Our defence though, was really good. We held them to a low score, so we’re happy with that.”
Gwen Storry, the Sabres’ first-year 6-foot Grade 11 guard, picked dup where she left off where at TBI in December, scoring a game-high 18 points.
Kirsten Conroy, a senior guard, added a further 10 points.
Angel Dee led the Angels with 12 points while Bea Williscroft added six more.
Last season, Sa-Hali edged Duchess Park of Prince George 55-52 in the Final Four before losing by a pointing the final to MEI.
And it’s those slim margins and the collective hurt of coming so close that has Aina appreciating everything about her experience at her final BC tourney.
“It was definitely a heartbreaking loss, but it made me just want to work harder,” she said. “I knew I had one more year coming back for 2026 and I was just like, ‘I’m gonna do whatever I can to help my team own and help us succeed in the next year.’”
NO. 3 SMUS 101 STEVESTON-LONDON 25
By BRAD ZIEMER (Special for Varsity Letters)
LANGLEY TOWNSHIP —No matter what tier they find themselves playing in, it seems the St. Michaels University School Blue Jags are always a threat when they arrive at the B.C. senior girls basketball championships.
Last year, the Blue Jags won the B.C. Double-A title and the previous two years they were runner-up at the Triple-A provincials.
St. Michaels, a private Victoria-based school with a rich hoops history, is back playing Triple-A again this year and the Blue Jags served notice Wednesday they will be serious title contenders at this week’s provincial tourney at the Langley Events Centre.
Powered by 6-foot-4 centre Mikaela Dubé and six-foot guard Elspeth Rodger, the Blue Jags breezed to a 101-25 win over the Steveston-London Sharks of Richmond in an opening round game of the 16-team tourney.
The Blue Jags are seeded third in the tourney after emerging as winners of the tough Vancouver Island Zone for a fifth straight year with a victory over the Mark Isfeld Ice of Courtenay.
On Wednesday, they raced out to a 23-5 first-quarter lead over Steveston-London and never looked back. The Blue Jags led 46-18 at halftime. The 12th seeded Sharks were simply no match for St. Michaels, who scored bushels of points in transition. They also made good use of Dubé when she posted up under the basket.
With the game pretty much in hand from the start, coach Lindsay Brooke made liberal use of her bench.
“I really didn’t know much about Steveston-London,” said Brooke, a former University of Victoria star. “But I am happy with the way we played today. Obviously, we scored 100 points. That’s pretty darned good.”
Dubé scored 21 points and Rodger added a game-high 24 for the Blue Jags, who advanced to Thursday’s quarter-finals.
Dubé’s size gives opponents fits.
“She’s only in Grade 11 and she’s a great player with her back to the basket and she’s working on her shooting range from the outside,” Brooke said. “And she runs the floor well. She’s a great kid and a real pleasure to coach.
St. Michaels came to the provincials with high expectations.
“We have been here before and performed well at this tournament,” Brooke said. “So I feel pretty good about our team. I would love to be playing on Saturday in the Arena Bowl. That would be amazing.”
St. Micheals will meet the winner of the Pitt Meadows-Yale opening-round game in Thursday’s quarter-finals.
No. 6 PITT MEADOWS 51 NO. 11 YALE 41
By BRAD ZIEMER (Special for Varsity Letters)
LANGLEY TOWNSHIP — After a tough third quarter, the Pitt Meadows Marauders needed a spark. Guards Evelyn Perler and Jocelyn Boyes provided it with some timely three-pointers.
Boyes opened the quarter with a pair of quick threes and Perler added four more down the stretch as the Marauders beat the Yale Lions of Abbotsford 51-41 in an opening round game of the B.C. senior girls Triple-A basketball championships at the Langley Events Centre.
“Those were huge,” Pitt Meadows coach Jason Boyes said of his team’s long-range attack in the fourth quarter. “Evelyn was having a hard time at the start and I kept telling her I believe in her no matter what. As long as she’s taking good shots and working hard, it will fall.”
Perler, who finished with 13 points, acknowledged feeling frustrated with her start.
“I am just happy I hit the shots when it counted,” Perler said. “Overall, it was a hard game. They are a good team. We have beaten them before, but you can never count on winning again and they fought strong. But at the end we really pushed ourselves.”
Point guard Jocelyn Boyes, the daughter of the head coach and star of the team, fought off double- and triple-teams the entire game to finish with 15 points.
Grade 8 guard Avery Choquer also made a significant contribution for the Marauders. She scored some big early points.
Both teams struggled to score in the opening minutes and it was Choquer who helped get the Pitt Meadows offence untracked.
She hit three big jump shots in the first quarter as the Marauders began to take control of the game.
“We call her Bambi,” Jason Boyes said. “She’s just learning how to walk. She really saved us at the start with some big shots.”
Choquer finished with 11 points.
Pitt Meadows, seeded sixth, is making its fourth straight appearance at the provincials and entered the tournament with a 20-4 record this season.
Pitt Meadows led 22-12 at the half, but the 11th-ranked Lions tightened up their defence and closed to within four points, 28-24, after three quarters.
The three-pointers then rained down in the fourth quarter to seal the win for Pitt Meadows. The Marauders will face the St. Michaels University Blue Jags in Thursday’s quarter-finals.
Guard Shara Libres scored 15 points to lead Yale. Libres and Perler were named stars of the game.
NO. 5 DUCHESS PARK 92 NO. 12 R.A. MCMATH 35
By BRAD ZIEMER (Special for Varsity Letters)
LANGLEY TOWNSHIP — Coach Reid Roberts calls his Duchess Park Condors a deep team.
“All 11 players share almost equal minutes, making our team very deep,” Roberts said.
You could come up with another ‘D’ word to describe the Condors. That would be dangerous, as the R.A. McMath Wildcats of Richmond discovered Wednesday in the opening round of the B.C. senior girls Triple-A basketball championships at the Langley Events Centre.
Duchess Park, a Prince George school seeded fifth, played well from start to finish and defeated McMath 92-35.
Grade 11 point guard Zahra Ngabo led the way for the Condors with 19 points.
“We started off the tournament with some intensity, which is good,” said Ngabo. “I love this team, we are a very hard-working team and if we set our minds to it, we can be good.”
Ngabo was especially proud of the way her team played on the defensive end of the floor.
“We are very much a defensive team and we like to run, we are supportive of each other and that keeps us going.”
The Condors’ depth was a full display against McMath. Coach Reid Roberts used all 11 players.
“We have been doing that all season,” he said. “It has been pretty consistent minutes for all 11 players. We’ve got lots of talent, so if we run that up-tempo game the girls get tired and I’ve got fresh legs coming in. We just keep them rolling off the bench.”
Duchess Park have five players score in double figures against 12th-seeded McMath, which had entered the game 17-1 in its games since the Christmas break.
The Condors started strong, building a 21-11 lead after one quarter and opened the second with a 12-0 run. They led 48-16 at halftime.
The Condors finished fourth at last year’s Triple-A championship tourney and Roberts believes his team has an opportunity to improve upon that this week.
“We are going in at No. 5, so obviously our goal is get past that,” he said. “We can’t look past our next game. We are pretty similar to the team we were last year. We don’t have a lot of size, lots of guards and lots of speed. We have to focus on our defensive stuff to get our offence going.”
Ana MacKenzie and Katya Marchiewitz chipped in with 15 points apiece for Duchess Park. Becca Nashlund led McMath with 12 points.
Duchess Park will play the winner of the Mark Isfeld-Sir Charles Tupper opening round game in Thursday’s quarter-finals.
4:45 P.M. MARK ISFELD (4) VS. SIR CHARLES TUPPER (13)
6:15 P.M. CROFTON HOUSE (8) VS. VALLEYVIEW (9)
7:45 P.M. VERNON (1) VS. MT. BAKER (16)
If you’re reading this story or viewing these photos on any website other than one belonging to a university athletic department, it has been taken without appropriate permission. In these challenging times, true journalism will survive only through your dedicated support and loyalty. VarsityLetters.ca and all of its exclusive content has been created to serve B.C.’s high school and university sports community with hard work, integrity and respect. Feel free to drop us a line any time at howardtsumura@gmail.com
