We’ve gone final from Day 3 of the 2025 B.C. girls high school basketball championships with complete reports from today’s two semifinals.
NO. 2 SEAQUAM 75 NO. 3 RIVERSIDE 61
BY HOWARD TSUMURA, VARSITY LETTERS
LANGLEY — The game of Neelum Sidhu’s life came on the second-to-last day of her high school basketball career.
It came from off the bench, it came without warning, and it came with the kinds of fireworks which ultimately led her Seaquam Seahawks back to Saturday night’s B.C. senior girls Quad-A basketball championship final.
While No. 2-seeded Seahawks were embroiled in a battle with the No. 3 Riverside Rapids just over a minute into the fourth quarter, their leadIng scorer Camryn Tait picked up her fourth foul of the game.
It was still anyone’s game at that stage with North Delta’s Seahawks leading PoCo’s Rapids 51-46.
But then from out of nowhere, the 6-foot-1 Sidhu seemed to magically appear, bringing with her the kind of confidence and aggression that made you think she was having an out-of-body experience.
Sidhu, not known as a prolific three-point shooter, proceeded to knock down three straight triples from three different parts of the court, and before you knew it, the Seahawks had reeled off a 19-9 game-changing run.
Yet before Sidhu would talk about her own performance — a game-high 25 points, 10 rebounds (seven offensive) — as part of her team’s 75-61 victory, she first had to explain the origin of the inspiring surge of energy she experienced as she played for an injured teammate.
“I felt her energy everywhere on that court was with us… from diving for balls, to getting rebounds, that was all Priya out there.”
The fates can be cruel, and in Seaquam’s case, the news was still fresh that Priya Toor, their Grade 12 guard and the team’s defensive heartbeat who had torn her ACL in the semifiinals of the South Fraser zone championships had been lost to the team on the eve of what was to have been both Sidhu and Toor’s final B.C. championships.
“Honestly, the one thing we said in that locker room was to play for one another, but especially for one of my best friends and my sister for life, Priya,” Sidhu added. “We just had to leave it all out on the court for her because, out of everyone, she deserved to be in this game.”
Priya Toor, or course, tore the ACL in her other knee during her Grade 9 summer and had worked so hard to find her role on the team following that injury.
And on Friday, while the Seahawks’ combined efforts could easily be seen through their hustle for loose balls and the like, it was a more subtle form of tribute that was perhaps even more important, and that was the patience and trust they showed in each other with a level of ball movement that never failed to produce the shot opportunities they collectively sought.
“They shot it well and from deep out,” said gracious Riverside head coach Paul Langford. “We gave it our all but we needed to play a little better and they needed to play a little worse for us to have a chance. But I am super proud I am Riverside coach. Jorja was amazing, what a great four years with that kid.”
Yes, Jorja Hart, Riverside’s senior guard/forward was once again forced to play her game under the deepest of opposition attention, and with a berth to the provincials on the line, she did it to the tune of a game-high 33 points, 10-of-20 shooting, 12-of-16 work from the stripe, nine rebounds and two blocks. Annabelle Neufeld added 10 in the loss.
Seaquam, as a team, struggled to shoot the ball well in the first half, yet of its 47 total rebounds on the game, 24 came off the offensive glass, the same Riverside defensive glass in which the Rapids managed 26 caroms collected.
Priya Toor finished with 17 points for the winners, while both Tait and Mackenzie Henderson added 11 apiece.
Tait battled foul problems much of the game, and when she picked up her fourth with 8:49 remaining and had to temper her game as a result, Sidhu knew she had to step up.
“That is unbelievable in that moment, and as soon as she walks off I go ‘I love yah kid’ because that is what you hope for from Grade 12’s,” said Seahawks head coach Lucky Toor of Sidhu’s performance. “It’s to show up in these moments and boy did she show up… Every time that they would kind of go on a little run or close the gap, she had that one dagger shot. For somebody who doesn’t even shoot (threes) all that often to understand that in the moment, when they’re doubling others that this is the right shot to take, and to take it with confidence… unbelievable.”
Toor was then told of Sidhu’s inspiring words regarding Priya Toor, his eldest of three daughters on the team.
“That is all we can ask for as coaches,” he said. “We sit here and try and build this culture and talk about us being a family, but when you see moments like that and comments like that from a player it just hits home.”
On Saturday night, then, the Brookswood Bobcats and the Seaquam Seahawks will meet to determine the showcase B.C. Quad-A championship when the historic 75th anniversary final tips off at 7:45 p.m.
Sidhu will follow her routine, including, fighting back the pre-game nerves she has before every tip, as well as strapping on her face protection.
“It’s to keep my nose from cracking side to side,” she said. “It’s more preventative.”
It’s hard to remember when she hasn’t worn it. How long ago had she broken the nose?
“It was at your tournament, the Howard Tsumura, back in my Grade 10 year. I’m used to it now. It’s kind of a style thing.”
It’s also the closest thing you’ll see to former Detroit Pistons’ NBA champion guard Richard ‘RIP’ Hamilton, who broke his nose and wound up wearing his mask for the final 10 years of his career.
“Yup,” Sidhu laughs when reminded of what she shares with Hamilton. “Honestly, I think it might be my lucky charm.”
NO. 4 BROOKSWOOD 67, NO. 1 ARGYLE 58
BY DAN KINVIG (Special for Varsity Letters)
These Brookswood Bobcats do not require much time at all to rip your heart out.
Nor to they exclusively rely on Jordyn Nohr to do it, though the Grade 10 superstar certainly does wield the sharpest knife.
The upstart Langley squad, seeded No. 4 in the 4A draw, scored a knockout punch to open the third quarter of Friday’s 4A semifinal vs. the top-seeded Argyle Pipers, reeling off a mind-bending 17-0 run to turn what had been a one-point game at halftime into a semi-blowout.
And though there were some mildly anxious moments down the stretch of the fourth quarter – more on that later – the Bobcats never found themselves truly in danger as they put the finishing touches on a proper upset. Final score, 67-58.
“As a team, our mentality is always to come out stronger after a timeout, after a quarter, after a halftime,” Brookswood senior forward Hazel Phillips explained. “It’s obviously really nice when it all comes together.
“One thing about us is, we all have a specific role, and we’re all going to go out and do what we can. When we all come together, it works beautifully.”
Throughout a tightly contested first half, neither team led by more than seven points, and Brookswood nursed the aforementioned one-point lead heading to the locker rooms.
Nohr lit the fuse to open the third quarter, draining back-to-back threes, and her supporting cast came up huge as the Bobcats started to run away with it.
Phillips, falling to the floor after absorbing a hard foul, somehow slung the ball off the glass and into the hoop from an almost horizontal position. Ashley Vande Ven sprinted the floor to haul in a long pass from Nohr for a layup. Then it was Phillips with a pull-up J, Vande Ven with a steal-and-score, and finally Nohr with a between-the-legs dribble into a stepback three.
It was an absolutely surgical stretch from the Bobcats. Less than five minutes of game time had elapsed, and the score was suddenly 45-27.
“We really talk about getting three stops in a row,” Brookswood head coach Chrissy Nohr said. “So we were just trying to get defensive stops, and then our shots started falling. It worked out for us.”
Sophie Nicholson did her best to spark the Pipers, slashing to the rim to get her team on the board in the quarter. But Jordyn Nohr answered with a three-pointer, and the Brookswood student section started serenading Argyle with an “O-VER-RA-TED” chant.
Brookswood faced its final exam in the fourth quarter, as Nohr was whistled for her fourth personal foul. There was still 9:25 left in regulation, and the Pipers had managed to shave a 19-point deficit down to 11. It felt a bit precarious.
Remarkably, the Bobcats thrived in Nohr’s absence – back-to-back treys from Fabi Taylor and Phillips expanded the lead back to 61-44. Ultimately, Brookswood was able to keep Nohr on the bench for more than six minutes – she re-entered with 3:21 remaining, after Argyle stitched together a 9-1 run to get back to within 62-53.
Nohr wasted no time driving into the teeth of the defence and dishing a dime to Vande Ven for a layup, and Brookswood maintained control from there.
“Obviously Jordyn is a very, very, very good player, and a crucial part of our team,” Phillips noted. “But something we’ve been working on is getting other people scoring opportunities, so in situations like that, we’re able to keep going.”
In the end, Nohr had once again eclipsed the 30-point plateau – she counted seven treys among her 32 points. Phillips and Vande Ven chipped in with 14 points apiece.
Isabella Miljkovic had a double-double (22 points, 11 rebounds) for the Pipers, and Nicholson (10 points) and Sadie Danks (nine points) also contributed offensively.
“We battled as hard as we could – we emptied the tanks, we just couldn’t hit a shot,” Argyle head coach Anthony Beyrouti analyzed. “We’re a usually pretty good shooting team . . . Tonight we were 2-for-24 from the three, and you can’t win games like that.
“Brookswood is a very good team, and you almost have to be perfect to beat them, we just weren’t tonight.
“The beginning of the third quarter, we just didn’t have it. We weren’t locked in, we lost focus. Good teams punish you when you lose focus like that.”
The Bobcats face the winner of Friday’s late semi between the Seaquam Seahawks and Riverside Rapids in Saturday’s 4A title tilt in the LEC’s Arena Bowl (7:45 p.m.).
Chrissy Nohr, quizzed about her team’s muted celebration after knocking off the No. 1 seed, answered succinctly.
“We’ve got one more game to win.”
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