LANGLEY TOWNSHIP — Day 2’s quarterfinals are now complete at the 76th annual B.C. senior girls basketball championships at the Langley Events Centre.
The stage is now set for Friday’s Final Four.
Here are the matchups in Double-A being staged at the LEC’s Centre Court.
3:30 p.m. — No. 2 Credo Christian vs. No. 3 St. Thomas More
5:15 p.m. — No. 1 Holy Cross vs. No. 13 Westsyde
Howard Tsumura
NO. 2 CREDO CHRISTIAN 72 NO. 7 JL JACKSON 33
By GARY KINGSTON (Special for Varsity Letters)
LANGLEY – They’ve beaten the best Single A schools that B.C. has to offer (five titles in a six-year-run from 2017-2023) and finally won their first Christian schools title in 23 years this season.
Now, Langley’s Credo Christian Kodiaks look poised to make a run at a B.C. Double A senior girls basketball title at what is essentially a home tournament at the Langley Events Centre.
Seeded No. 2 behind only the Holy Crusaders, the Kodiaks dispatched provincials debutante J. L. Jackson Jays 72-33 in a Thursday afternoon quarterfinal.
Coach Kayla Vanderhorst said winning the Christian schools title in January was a huge confidence boost before provincials.
“We had won some Double A games and that put us up in the rankings,” she said of stepping up a tier this season. “And to beat Langley Christian (in the final) it really made us feel that we deserved that No. 2 spot.”
Two more wins and they’ll have the school’s first B.C. Double A championship.
“Wouldn’t that be something,” said Vanderhorst. “We know we’re in tough, but we have high hopes we can do well.”
The undermanned and undersized Jays – they dressed just eight players, including star point guard Keira Cadden, who was injured on Wednesday and played just a scoreless first quarter against the Kodiaks – did prove to be a stubborn out, however, hanging tough through a 37-19 first half despite a number of air-balled shots.
But the Kodiaks, depth, size, defence and speed was just too much for the Jays to handle.
The Kodiaks scored off five barely contested fast-break layups in the first six minutes of the third quarter while going on a 18-3 run to take firm control.
Maybe the Jays needed one of their lucky cold water plunges. As a team, they took one in Okanagan Lake before winning both their semifinal and final at the Thompson-Okanagan zone championship in Penticton.
They located a pond near the Air B and B they’re staying at in Langley, but it looked less than appealing.”We were worried about the leeches and sinking into the bottom,” laughed coach Kira Limber before the game.
The Kodiaks were keyed by Grade 12 forward Presley Kobes and a dynamic tandem of five-foot-seven guards, Kenzie Rapp and Hailey Stam.
The speedy Kobes kept leaking out behind the slow-reacting Jays for some of those easy fast-break layups enroute to 18 points.
“This is how she plays,” said coach Kayla Vanderhorst. “She’s very quick, probably the fastest on our team. She has that little burst of enthusiasm. And if there’s a pressure layup, we want the ball in her hands. She’s so smooth with those.”
Rapp, a Grade 12, was a force going to the basket and also dropped a pair of treys while scoring 17 points. Stam, a Grade 11, scored 16 while racking up at least half a dozen steals and playing adroit facilitator with nearly double-digit assists.
“They are just quick, smart players who know how to transition offensively to defensively,” said Vanderhorst.
Stam, who was named player of the game, said that after a slow start in the first-round game, a 71-54 win over West Point Grey Academy, the Kodiaks came out fast and focussed on Thursday.
She echoed the coach’s comments about how the win at the Christian schools tournament instilled a heightened level of confidence.
“That was very important for us. There were a lot of good Double A teams there and so coming into this tournament, knowing we can beat them, that’s very helpful.”
NO. 3 ST. THOMAS MORE COLLEGIATE 53 NO. 7 PACIFIC ACADEMY 49
By GARY KINGSTON (Special for Varsity Letters)
LANGLEY – What’s that old basketball adage? You can’t teach height.
But the thing is, even if you don’t have it, you can still compete with a roster of mini-mites who buzz around like a swarm of hyped up bees returning to the hive.
That aptly describes the St. Thomas More Knights senior girls basketball team that starts a pair of guards who go just five-foot-three and another who’s five-foot-five. The only starter bigger than a Munchkin is five-foot-eight Emina Sidhu, a precocious Grade 8 with uncommon composure who is still working to develop her game.
Now, the guard trio of Demicah Arnaldo, Kyla Limon and Mia Beliveau will get shots swatted away plenty of times while on probing drives to the basket. But if you get there as many times as the Knights do, enough will go in.
Admittedly, Some on off-balance heaves, others on crazy one-handed tosses. But as ugly as the shots look at times, they still count if they go in.
All of that was on display Thursday as the No. 3 seed Knights, who play defence like their lives depend on it, won a B.C. Double A quarterfinal 53-49 over the No. 7 Pacific Academy Breakers.
“We are a gritty, tough group,” said coach Cassie Luang, who almost teared up talking about the leadership of Grade 12s Beliveau, Arnaldo and Mackenzie Pagtakhan.
“I think we take great pride in being undersized and great pride in being underestimated. We need to make up for that in something else. And I think there is a little bit of toughness and a little bit of grit and a little bit of spirit that I can’t really put into words. They are something fun to watch.”
On an afternoon when many shots were being air-balled or clanging off iron, the Knights still made enough baskets to eke out the close win and set up a semifinal matchup Friday with No. 2 seed Credo Christian of Langley.
Beliveau led the Knights with 15 points, while Limon added 10 and Arnaldo eight. Five-foot-eight Grade 8 forward Emina Sidhu scored eight clutch second half points on the inside off terrific feeds from Limon and Believeau.
Sidhu showed terrific poise for a Grade 8, who only joined the senior squad in January.
“She had a great game and to her credit she left a Grade 8 team that is competing for a Grade 8 championship right now,” said Luang. “For us, it was a no-brainer to see what she could do at this level. Her composure and her finish and her toughness is something that stands out.”
With the score tied at 27 at the half, the Knights turned the game in their favor, by going to full-court pressure in the third quarter. With active hands and a buzzsaw-like intensity STM forced two eight-second violations and created a half dozen other turnovers.
“That was key,” said Luang. “At some point, if we’re small, we have to nullify size with something else and that is speed and toughness. Toughness is something you can’t really measure on a stat sheet. But that’s who we are and we take pride in that.”
The Knights built a 41-34 lead heading into the fourth quarter and stretched the 11 points before a 9-0 Pacific Academy run that included a three-pointer at the final buzzer, closed out the scoring.
“We knew this game was going to probably be low-scoring and we’d have to rely on our defence,” said Pagtakhan. “We’re small, we know that. We practice that, being a smaller team, so we take a lot of pride in our energy and our intensity on defence. And even if it’s a bad shooting day, we’ll find a way to get to the basket.”
Abby Boehm led Pacific Academy with 12 points, while Eden Hansen chipped in with 10.
NO. 13 WESTSYDE 78 NO. 6 PACIFIC CHRISTIAN 69
By GARY KINGSTON
LANGLEY – Will Whundas never cease?
Or maybe, call it a Whunda-ful win for Westsyde.
Whatever tortured idiom or corny turn of phrase you want to use, the No. 13 seed Westsyde Whundas (does anybody know what a Whunda is?) are making a mockery of the Double A seedings at the B.C. senior girls high school basketball championships.
After upsetting the No. 3 seed Notre Dame Jugglers on Wednesday, Westsyde overcame an 11-point third quarter deficit to dispatch No. 6 seed Pacific Christian Pacers 78-69 in a Thursday quarterfinal.
“I think they were wrong about this one for sure,” said Westsyde top scorer Ryen Scott (33 points) of the tournament officials who gave the Whundas such a low seeding. “It gave us some fuel and really powered us going into the tournament. We’re happy with it.”
Now, the Kamloops-based Whundas did only play one other Double A school all season and did finish second in the Thompson-Okanagan zone playoffs.
But with five Grade 12s and the super-talented Scott, a six-foot-one Grade 11, on the roster, it’s a team with the size and experience to play against anybody.
“It’s so subjective, right,” said coach Ishar Litt of the seedings. “We were (ranked No.) 5 at one point, but we don’t know the other teams, so we don’t know if we’re over(rated) or under. It’s OK with us.”
Litt said the Whundas are a balanced team.
“We have four players that can score for us. We’re not relying on one person.”
That said, they did rely a lot Thursday on Scott, who was terrific as an inside scorer while also getting to the foul line six times where she converted nine of 12 free throws.
The Whundas erased that third-quarter deficit behind 13 points from Scott and a standout second half from guard Meena Litt, who had 16 of her 21 points in the final 20 minutes.
“Our fourth quarter is our best quarter,” said Ishar Litt. “I can tell you about a game we played when we were down 25 points in the fourth quarter and came back to nearly win. We have that in us
“We can have those scoring spurts.”
They’re probably going to need a few of those Friday night in a semifinal matchup with No. 1 seed Holy Crusaders, who have rolled easily through their first two games.
“We know it’s going to be a tough battle,” said Scott. “But I think we can go all the way. We have some pieces and we’re athletic. We’re all multi-sport athletes.”
Kealayna Tupas-Singh led the Pacers with 28 points, while Mylie Taal added 12.
NO. 1 HOLY CROSS 92 NO. 9 COLLINGWOOD 35
By GARY KINGSTON
LANGLEY – Howard Tsumura, the founder and chief writer for www.varsityletters.ca says the Holy Cross Crusaders senior girls basketball team are the definition of deep and dangerous.
They can also be described as experienced. Ridiculously so.
In a B.C. championship tournament where Grade 11s can be stars and some teams feature dangerous Grade 10s and even a few Grade 9s, the Crusaders feature a whopping 10 Grade 12s.
It means the Double-A No. 1 seed Crusaders are battle-tested and anxious to avenge a loss in the final last year to St. Michaels University School, which this season moved up to the Triple-A ranks.
In other words, they are on a hoops-focussed crusade to bring Holy Cross its first provincial title since 2013.
After a 90-11 pasting of Dawson Creek on Wednesday, the Crusaders rode a 26-game win streak into a quarterfinal matchup on Thursday with No. 9 seed Collingwood Cavaliers. As expected, it wasn’t much of a battle with Holy Cross deploying what is basically a 10-player rotation en route to a 92-35 victory.
They can run with anybody, get to the basket with relative ease, crash the board for offensive rebounds and hit well-enough from three-point range to keep defences from sagging down on their bigs.
They are as complete a team as there has been in Double A for a while. Oh, and you can add another ‘c’ word to what makes them tick – chemistry.
“Having 10 Grade 12s is very unusual . . . and that helps for sure,” said head coach Amy Beauchamp. “These kids have been playing together since Grade 8 when they won provincials.”
So how has Holy Cross been able to keep so many Grade 12s on the roster through their final season of high school ball.
“I think a lot of it is our team,” said Beauchamp. “They truly love each other and see each other as family. We just get along so well. They have fun and want to keep coming back.”
One of those Grade 12s is six-foot, do-everything forward Solene Jackson, who had a torrid first half scoring 25 of her game-high 28 points while sitting most of the second half. What makes her so special?
“Everything about her,” said Beauchamp. “The way she is as a person and a teammate is huge. Then on top of that she’s just an amazing basketball player. Her length and her ability to do it on both ends of the floor and to create her own shot. She’s just a heck of a player.”
Eight other Crusaders hit the scoresheet, with Mila Wojciechowski potting 12 points and Jane Adam 10. No Cavalier hit double figures, with Chloe Cechini leading the way with eight points.
Jackson said the loss in last year’s final continues to fuel the team this season.
“Last year, we were all really, really sad. We’ve been training hard every day in practice, just remembering the feeling of losing in the final. We definitely feel like we want to win it all this year, feel happy and finish it off great.”
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