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 2
TRIPLE-A
TOP HALF DRAW
NO. 4 VERNON 51 NO. 5 COLLEGE HEIGHTS 46
BY GARY KINGSTON, Special for Variety Letters
LANGLEY – There’s something about the Vernon Panthers senior girls basketball team that defies conventional hoops wisdom.
They’re small, really small. They don’t have a true low-post player. At times, their most tenacious rebounder is a dwarf-sized guard who is generously listed at 5-foot-4. They lack depth, coming to the B.C. championships with just nine players.
And they play at a roadrunner pace. All over the court. For a full 40 minutes. It’s exhausting just watching them. You think they’d need an oxygen tank on the bench.
On Thursday at the Langley Events Centre, they made just two buckets in the third quarter and fell behind by eight points midway through the fourth. Yet, through an unwavering belief, that tireless work ethic and a few three-point attempts finally falling, they grinded out a 51-46 victory over Prince George’s College Heights Cougars in a Triple A quarterfinal.
Their commitment to each other and the belief in the process led to a pretty simple message in a timeout after they fell behind by nearly double digits in the final quarter.
“We took that timeout,” said Isla Joly, the tiny but dynamic vacuum machine of loose balls under the basket. “We took our time. We said ‘we’re fine, we’re OK. We still can come back and win this’ and we just kept playing.”
Panthers head coach Dave Tetrault, who came out of a two-year retirement to coach a group that includes just two Grade 12s and three Grade 10s, got emotional in a post-game interview recounting that timeout and his message to the girls.
“I just said to them,” as he paused to fight back tears and collect himself, “‘You can do this.’ “These kids . . . we live and die by the three (pointer). ‘Keep shooting them. Don’t stop. This is what we do. We’re not going to stop what we do because they don’t go in.’
“They just responded so well, came out of the timeout and hit a couple.”
A 12-foot jumper by Grade 10 Caelyn Fitzpatrick – her only points of the game – was followed by a three-pointer from leading scorer Chloe Collins and, after a College Heights trey, four points from Adie Janke on a bucket inside and two free throws to allow Vernon to pull within one at 41-40.
Then trailing 45-43 with two minutes to go, the Panthers scored eight straight points to clinch the win.
“It was phenomenal to be part of that game,” said Tetrault. “Honored to be their coach today.”
Vernon’s defence was terrific, harassing Cougars’ shooter Summer Toor into a tough outing in which she converted just one three-pointer and missed on about eight others.
“Our defence was unbelievably great today,” said Tetrault. “I can’t even imagine we could play much better on defence.”
It was man-to-man for the full 40.
“I’ve tried to play zone in practice and it’s like ‘Naw, we don’t like zone.”
While turnovers and steals weren’t kept Thursday, the ball-hawking Panthers constantly disrupted the Cougars offence with quick hands and blanket coverage, particularly on inbounds play, forcing at least a couple of late College Heights turnovers.
And then there was the work on the glass, or more accurately lower to the floor where Joly was constantly sneaking down low to rip balls away under the basket.
“She’s like our leading rebounder and she’s just 5-foot-2,” said Tetrault with a laugh,
Collins was the Panthers top scorer with 14 points, while fellow guard Paige Leahy added 13. Guard Lorenn Cacares led the Cougars with 18.
College Heights head coach Wade Loukes, who was pleading for foul calls at times on his primary ball handlers, often with a polite “please,” said it was disappointing to see Caceres foul out and bruising 5-foot-9 forward Olivia Young also get into foul trouble.
“It’s tough when your two toughest players out there in a very physical game get fouled out like that. But my girls, they worked their asses off. It was a great effort.”
NO. 1 MEI 63 NO. 9 MCMATH 39
BY GARY KINGSTON, Special for Variety Letters
LANGLEY – Rick Thiessen has been an MEI institution, 31 years at the Abbotsford school, coaching either Grade 8, the junior squad or the senior girls squad, the 2024-25 version being the one that he has brought to the B.C. Triple A championships.
He’s thinking retirement after this season, although in the next breath, he notes that a granddaughter is entering Grade 8 next year and he may well be behind the bench to coach her.
In those three decades as a bench boss, though, he has yet to celebrate a championship, to take a turn at cutting down the net.
“I have not won one,” he says kind of ruefully, noting he was coaching the junior team when the MEI senior squad last won a provincial title in 1999. “I have been in four junior finals, one senior final and never won one.
“This is likely my last year of coaching. I’m in a retirement transition year, so (to win the Triple A title) would be the icing on the cake of a long career of coaching.”
It looks like a taste of that delicious frosting might be just a couple of days away.
The No. 1-seeded Eagles overcame some early jittery play Thursday before dispatching the R.A. McMath Marauders 63-39 in a quarterfinal at the Langley Events Centre.
It’s an MEI team with more length, speed and depth than the other contenders, some veteran leadership in Grade 12s Olivia Sidhu, Lola Reimer and a commitment level that has led Thiessen to call his group “unique.”
Still, MEI fell behind 8-0 early and 13-9 after one quarter when No. 9 seed R.A. McMath challenged the Eagles with a tough zone defence that Thiessen admits his team wasn’t ready for.
“They clearly had a game plan and it was very effective,” said Thiessen. “We were rattled. Not a lot of teams have tried to play zone against us. The top row (of the zone) came up really high.
“We were constantly making adjustments and in the break after the first quarter, I had more time to explain what we were looking for and all of a sudden it clicked. And the defence picked it up.”
McMath scored just four points in the second quarter and 22 in the second half as the Eagles rolled to a predictable victory.
Sidhu, who had a game-high 18 points, said the defensive pressure the Eagles brought led to some turnovers and “good defence leads to offence.”
Reimer added 17 points for the Eagles, who feature five players who go six-foot or taller. A couple of those players come off the bench as MEI runs a steady diet of size and speed at teams.
“Once they went to their bench a bit, we were like wolves,” said Thiessen. “It was like ‘OK, let’s finish this off right now. I love that about this team. The character is one of we’re going to work so hard on (defence) and the offence will look after itself.
“We’ve talked about having an identity as a team. I’ve actually used that language, we’re going to be wolves when we’re pressing.”
MEI now advances to a Friday semifinal against the No. 4-seed Vernon Panthers.
BOTTOM HALF DRAW
NO. 2 SA-HALI 63 NO. 7 ROBERT BATEMAN 47
(By GARY KINGSTON, Special for Varsity Letters)
LANGLEY – It’s rare in today’s basketball, where the three-point shot is a staple and players hoist the ball from almost anywhere, that a 33-point, game-high scorer does it without a single trey on the scoresheet.
But that’s what happened Thursday when Sa-Hali Sabres star Nevena Nogic, listed as a 5-foot-10 guard, did all her damage from inside and the foul line as the Kamloops school beat Robert Batemen of Abbotsford 63-47 in a Triple A quarterfinal.
Nogic, who will play at UBC Okanagan next season, admits she’ll go out past the three-point line and hoist her share of bombs. But the way Bateman was playing defence allowed her ample opportunity to use her considerable inside skills to score.
“Since they were in a zone the whole time, with my size I know how to work in the post . . . and get points in the paint,” said Nogic.
Twenty of her points came that way and she was a near perfect 13-of-14 from the free throw line.
Sa-Hali head coach Jody Vosper said his team did a good job of getting the ball to Nogic in areas where she could attack the basket.
“We looked and found her and she got to the line and made her free throws, which was really big.”
The Sabres, the No,. 2 seed in Triple A, also played terrific defence, using quick hands to create several turnovers and not allowing the Timberwolves to get into any kind of offensive rhythm.
The win marked the first time that Sa-Hali, a frequent representative from the Thompson-Okanagan zone, has advanced as far as the semifinals.
“Our program has been coming here for 20-plus years and this is our first Final Four,” said Vosper. “They are an amazing group of girls, working hard, having fun. I love ‘em so much.”
The players haven’t been shy either to talk about winning a championship, noting to reporters at home and in Langley that they’ve got a spot on the gym wall that would be a perfect place to hang a championship banner.
“It would mean everything (to win the school’s first B.C. title),” says Nogic. “We talk about having that one empty spot (on the ball), and every year we talk about how we’re going to fill it and this year can be it.”
Vosper said it would be “amazing” to bring a title to the school.
“We know we have to take it one possession at a time. There are lots of good teams here, We’re not taking anything for granted. We’re just enjoying the moment.”
While Nogic had 33 points, no other Sabre was in double figures, although six players hit the scoresheet.
Danny Konishi led the Timberwolves with 17 points. Sahejpreet Hundal added 16.
NO. 3 DUCHESS PARK 62 NO. 7 MARK R. ISFELD 59
(By GARY KINGSTON, Special for Varsity Letters)
LANGLEY – Reid Roberts knew the lull was coming, but when his Duchess Park Condors went cold from the field to open the third quarter of their Triple A senior girls quarterfinal on Thursday, he was almost powerless to prevent it.
After taking a 37-26 halftime lead over Mark. R. Isfeld, the Condors could muster just three free throws through the first eight minutes of the third quarter and the Ice went on a 17-3 run to build a 43-40 lead.
Could an upset, the first of the Triple A tournament, be in the offing?
Not on this night.
“We have a bad habit of dropping off in the third quarter,” said Roberts after his team fought back for a nail-biting 62-59 victory. “It’s been a nemesis of ours all year. It’s just one of those things.
“I hate halftime. You get that chance to relax and I don’t know if they get overconfident or lose focus. But they tend to come out flat.”
Fortunately for the No. 3 seed Condors, they found their game late in the quarter. Grade 12 guard Mercedes Black hit a three-pointer with 1:52 left in the third and, after Zahra Ngabo drained a couple of free throws, Black converted a driving layup as the buzzer sounded on a sublime assist from Ngabo.
“Mercedes was kind of struggling all game to hit,” said Roberts. “She tends to do that. She’ll keep shooting, though, and she’ll get ya right at the end when it counts.”
The game stayed tight through a hotly contested fourth quarter and was tied at 53 with 3:22 remaining.
Black, who had 10 points on the night, made it 56-53 with another three-pointer only to see the Ice tie it up again when the Jonel Follis made three free throws after being fouled on a free-throw attempt.
An offensive rebound put back by Emily Clarke and a terrific drive to the basket by Ngabo where she converted an off-balance layup made it 60-59 for Duchess Park. Then after a couple of turnovers by the Ice, the Condors Devyn Bjorn stepped to the line with 2.2 seconds left and calmly dropped a pair of free throws to clinch the win.
“I’m confident in my free throws,” said Bjorn, who led the Condors with 14 points. “I practice them a lot. I just take a deep breath and stick to my routine.”
Elena Russell led the Ice with 21 points, including five makes from beyond the arc
Roberts is confident his squad is in a good position as it heads into a semifinal matchup Friday with No. 2 seed Sa-Hali, a 63-47 winner over Robert Bateman.
“We’ve been down here two years as juniors with this group, then two years as seniors. So we’ve got lots of experience being down here. We’ve played Sa-Hali once this year, at their tournament. They beat us by 12, so it’s a tough matchup, but the girls will be ready to go.”
Just so long as they can overcome the third-quarter doldrums.
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