LANGLEY — We’ve gone final on our reports from the B.C. 4A, 3A and 2A games played at the Langley Events Centre tonight with reports from all 12 of the games played at South Court, Centre Court and the Fieldhouse gyms.
We’ll be back again tomorrow with reports from all four tiers as Final Four Friday hits the LEC!
BASKETBALL
B.C. SENIOR GIRLS CHAMPIONSHIPS
DAY 1
QUAD A
TOP HALF DRAW
NO. 4 BROOKSWOOD 69 NO. 5 G.W. GRAHAM 62
By HOWARD TSUMURA, Varsity Letters
LANGLEY — OK Jordyn Nohr, your application for inclusion in the Marvel Universe has officially been accepted.
And tell that friend of yours, the one wearing No. 10, she’s in too, if she wants.
That of course would be Nohr’s teammate Ashely Vande Ven, the 6-foot-2 centre whose increased second-half presence helped balance the offence and allow the superstar Nohr to do her thing as the Brookswood Bobcats’ stunningly rallied from 20 points down (40-30) early in the third to top Chilliwack’s G.W. Grizzlies 69-62 and earn a spot in Friday’s Final Four.
The Grizzlies, and most specifically it’s 5-foot-10 Grade 12 guard Emily Sprott, put a perfect gameplan on the floor over the game’s first half.
Sprott face-guarded Nohr with the kind of success few have had since the ‘Cats Grade 10 phenom first began her high school career three seasons ago.
A dervish with a motor and incredible balance, Sprott was seemingly the perfect shadow, fighting through screens and holding Nohr to no points in the first quarter, and just seven at the half.
Vande Ven, who played limited minutes in the first half, made her presence felt once her team fell behind by 40-20.
From that point onwards, Nohr scored 30 of her 37 on the game, while Vande Ven scored eight of her 10.
Of course it was the forward/centre’s athleticsm, and her ability to force the opposition offence to hedge their aggressiveness which seemed to give the ‘Cats their rallying spark.
“I think we just didn’t come out prepared enough,” said Jordyn Nohr afterwards. “We didn’t have enough energy and we let them play their game. But in the second half, we just knew that this is the season, this is the game we had to win.”
The victory sends Brookswood into the semifinals on Friday (6:45 p.m.) against the Argyle-Oak Bay winner.
“They were taking Jordyn out of the game and other kids weren’t hitting shots,” said Brookswood head coach Chrissy Nohr. “As soon as the second-half opened, a few other kids scored and it opened things up for Jordyn.”
But oh what a first half it was for Sprott, the Folka sisters — Carmen and Nicole — and the rest of the dialled-in Grizzlies.
On such a lofty stage as the B.C. Final 8, their play under head coach Colleen Folka will stand as a tourney highlight.
When asked about the kind of respect she has for a player like Sprott, who did so much to limit her offensive game, the classy point guard didn’t hold back.
“100 per cent,” Nohr said of the energy Sprott expended against her. “And they did a very good job. They are a very aggressive team, quick and athletic, so it’s hard to get around, especially when they are throwing double teams, especially with someone (coming) from behind. It was hard to break… but I think the second half, we just knew how to do it, how to beat it.”
The Bobcats’ 5-foot-11 Hazel Phillips, who has come as far as any player in the province in terms of becoming a presence in her senior year as an inside-outside factor, shone for her team en route to scoring 17 points.
Carmen Folka scored 18 points, and sister Nicole Folka 13 more for the Grizzlies. Macie Svehla scored 11 and Sprott had 10.
“Our girls have always been really good about always fighting back and never letting halftime determine anything,” said Chrissy Nohr. “It’s a good mindset going into the semis.”
NO. 1 ARGYLE 78 NO. 8 OAK BAY 72
By HOWARD TSUMURA, VARSITY LETTERS
LANGLEY — The championship round here at the B.C. senior girls Quad-A basketball championships started with the No. 4-seeded Brookswood Bobcats got the scare of their lives before rallying to win over the No. 5 G.W. Graham Grizzlies.
Like Langley’s ‘Cats, North Vancouver’s No. 1-seeded Argyle Pipers know that they dodged a bullet en route to punching their tickets for Friday’s Final 4.
But unlike the Brookswood, who had to rally from 20 down, the Pipers, for the majority of the fourth quarter, looked like they would not be able to hold off a surging cfew of Oak Bay Breakers before eventually holding on to win 78-72.
The No. 8 seeds from Victoria, led by the incredible second-half performances of seniors Molly Andulajevic and Eden Henderson, carried their team from a 63-43 deficit at the end of the third quarter to within seven points (74-67) after Andulajevic’s steal and driving layin with two minutes remaining.
Big, deep, long and tall, the Pipers have all of the ingredients for a long tourney run, but after a win which came with some big question marks, head coach Anthony Beyrouti wasn’t about to start sugar-coating reality.
Nothing comes free at provincials,” said Beyrouti. “You have to go after it. People aren’t quitting. You have to go and force them into submission, and you know it gives us somethign to work on going into tomorrow. We’ll be ready to go.”
With Brookswood the oppisition in its 6:45 p.m. Friday Final 4 game, you can bet neither team will be taking anything for granted.
For his part, Beyrouti knows the key will be to get his team to bring a tenacious 40-minute effort tomorrow.
Andulajevic, who scored a game-high 31 points, and Henderson, who scored 11 of her 15 in the fourth quarter, were simply on another level when it came to making clean takeaways and convertin g them into instant offence.
The pair combined to score 23 points in the final quarter.
Argyle got dual 16-point outings from centre Eva Woodward and forward Sophie Nicholson, while guard Sophie Danks and with 13 and forward Isabella Miljkovic added 13 and 11 respectively.
Interesting to note that virtually all of Argyle’s players are 10th andf 11th graders, including all four of the aforementioned Pipers.
BOTTOM HALF DRAW
NO. 2 SEAQUAM 77 NO. 10 KELOWNA 38
By HOWARD TSUMURA, VARSITY LETTERS
LANGLEY — The first two games of the day in the Quad-A quarterfinals here at the 2025 B.C. senior girls basketball championships clearly set the dialogue for everything else which would follow.
Again, to re-state the details of a spectacular first two games at South Court: No. 4 Brookswood found a way to rally and win from a 20-point second-half deficit. No. 1 Argyle then built a 20-point second-half lead but had to do everything in their power not to surrender it.
Were the No. 2 Seaquam Seahawks so deeply sequestered in their own pregame for the thid quarterfinal of the day that they just shut out all the external noise until game time?
“To be honest with you, that kind of actually motivated us because it was a reminder that once you’re into the Final 8, it’s the provincials and everyone wants to win,” stated Seaquam head coach Lucky Toor after the the win which sends his team into an 8:30 p.m. semifinal Friday against the No. 3 seed Riverside Rapids.
“You can’t take any possession lightly, any team lightly, we just have to be dialled in. It was added motivation and we talked about it for a good minute or two in pregame for sure,” added Toor before Seaquam once again walked the walk.
The defending champions went on a 26-3 game-opening run on their way to a 77-38 win over the No. 10 Kelowna Owls.
Seaquam’s Syra Toor, the talented Grade 11 guard who had a quiet game in her team’s opening round win Wednesday over Heritage Woods, was on fire over the three quarters in which she played, scoring a game-high 26 points.
Mackenzie Henderson added 19 points, while Callie Brost scored nine of her 13 in the first quarter.
Mav Chahal, the determined senior guard for the Owls, led her team with 15 points.
An interesting moment transpired towards the end of the game.
With Seaquam comfortably in front, Toor inserted two of his Grade 8 players into the game.
One was his youngest daughter Aaliyah Toor, who promptly hit a trey. The other was Ashleen Sidhu, the daughter of assistant coach Jim Sidhu and the younger sister of senior Neelum Sidhu.
“Trying to give them a taste of what this feels like, what a championsuop team feels like,” said Toor, whose daughters Priya and Syra are also a senior on the team. “It’s the two younger sisters getting to play with their older sisters for this run.”
NO. 3 RIVERSIDE 78 NO. 6 YALE 70
By HOWARD TSUMURA, VARSITY LETTERS
LANGLEY — Annabelle Neufeld’s best game of the season came at the perfect time for the No. 3-seeded Riverside Rapids of Port Coquitlam.
On Thursday, with a dynamic and emotion-fuelled pride of No. 6-seeded Yale Lions intent on limiting the usual voluminous output of the Rapids’ senior scoring leader Jorja Hart, the impetus fell on another player to go inside and battle for the paint touches so essential in winning big postseason battles.
So what did the soft-spoken, 5-foot-11 guard Neufeld do?
She did as requested, looked absolutely in her element doing it, and in the end, let her game do the talking.
“That is probably her best game this year I woudl say,” said Riverside head coach Paul Langford after Neufeld scored a game-high 23 points, somehow just magically appearing every time a spot to take a medium-range inside jumper would organically appear on the floor.
It was deuces everywhere.
Ten two-point baskets and three-of-three free throw shooting, and it was the consistency and the efficiency of her actions, playing off the attention being paid to Hart, that ultimately allowed the Rapids to find a new harmony within their rotation.
“We brought her in when she was in Grade 10 and she was a surprise, but now people know who she is and it’s a different world for her. Bit tonight Yale did a good job on Jorja so it was nice to see her step up and rise to the occasion.”
From her prospective, Neufeld relished the fact that her success was able to help her team answer the responses of a Yale team playing its usual determined style.
“Once the shots kept falling, it felt better,” she said after being selected Player of the Game. “It was just nice to be able to make some shot and get us some momentum.”
And while Neufeld was busy getting things done sinde, fellow senior guard Maliyah Mendoza was busy knocking down five treys and going 7-for-7 from the free throw line, establishing an inside-out rhytm in the half-court with the success Riverside was having inside with Neufeld.
Mendoza finished with 22 points, while Hart, who regularly plays against the most game-planned defences, still managed to scpred 14 points.
Yale got 19 points from guard Aysia Kumar while Grade 11 post Sloane Mason, the bedrock of the team in the post at both ends of the floor, scored 14.
Kendal Dueck had 13, Maeava Carnahan had 12 as all five of the Lions’ starters scored into double figures.
The Rapids now face Seaquam in a rematch of last season’s B.C. title game, this time around with a berth to the final on the line in Arena Bowl.
Friday’s semifinal tips off at 8:30 p.m.
Seaquam and Riverside have played twice this season and the Seahawks won both, including a 79-66 win back on Dec. 10 in the semifinals of the TBI Super 16 at the Langley Events Centre
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