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. 1 MEI 64, NO. 4 VERNON 55
BY DAN KINVIG (Special for Varsity Letters)
The MEI Eagles are so deep and tall and talented and versatile, they can beat you in any number of ways.
But on Friday afternoon, with a trip to the provincial 3A final on the line, it came down to some good old-fashioned brute force in the paint.
Eagles head coach Rick Thiessen, with his team clinging to a 36-29 lead over the Vernon Panthers early in the third quarter, called a timeout and didn’t skimp on the decibels as he lit into his troops.
“Stop taking lousy shots,” he roared, alluding to the Eagles’ propensity for jacking the first semi-open three-pointer that presented itself, “and get the ball inside!”
The Eagles took the instruction to heart, patiently working the ball into the paint to 6’2” Grade 11 centre Ella Tatlock, and she scored eight of MEI’s next 10 points in a game-defining 10-1 run.
Adie Janke singlehandedly kept the Panthers from folding – she accounted for more than half of her team’s offensive output, racking up 29 points highlighted by 6-of-10 shooting from beyond the arc.
Yet in a game where the Eagles couldn’t seem to buy a bucket outside the restricted area (they shot just 1-of-17 from three as a team), their power in the paint was enough for a 64-55 triumph.
Thiessen, MEI’s longtime bench boss known for his relentlessly levelheaded demeanor, noted that the game tilted the Eagles’ way after his high-volume third-quarter timeout. He said he “can count on one hand” the number of times he’s raised his voice to that degree across his 31-year coaching career.
“I don’t coach that way,” he said with a wry grin. “You can’t do it often. When they hear me like that, they know, ‘OK, I think he’s serious.’
“We had a tremendous size advantage, and weren’t using it. So at halftime, we made some adjustments to our offense and said we were going to work it inside. And then we didn’t.
“So I said, ‘If you want to win this game, you must do what I tell you, or you’re not playing.’ And it worked. All of a sudden Ella got unlocked, and they couldn’t stop us.”
MEI guard Olivia Sidhu – an Ottawa GeeGees commit – got rolling in the second quarter in transition, scoring eight points in the frame to spark her squad to a 34-25 halftime advantage.
The Panthers cut into the lead at the start of the third quarter, but Tatlock scored eight of the Eagles’ next 10 points as the No. 1 seed surged ahead 46-31.
Janke, Vernon’s own Grade 11 standout, simply refused to quit. Four of her treys came in the fourth quarter, helping her team trim the deficit to 52-46 with five minutes remaining in regulation.
Clutch buckets down the stretch from Tatlock, Sidhu and Aliyah Bos, though, allowed the Eagles to keep the Panthers at arm’s length.
“The passes my teammates were giving me, they got me the ball at the right angles, in the sweet spot you could say,” said Tatlock, who finished with a team-best 17 points to go with 13 rebounds and four blocks. “We just trust each other. We moved the ball quickly with good passes, and it worked out for us.”
Sidhu also authored an outstanding stat line, posting 16 points, eight rebounds, eight assists, and eight steals. Lola Reimer added 13 points for MEI, and Bos finished with eight.
Janke was white-hot, but aside from her 9-for-21 shooting from the field, the Panthers hit just 9-of-51 (17.6 per cent).
“That was crazy,” Thiessen said, marveling at Janke’s red-hot shooting. “We thought we were guarding her, as she’s six feet past the three-point line with a hand in her face. But no. She’d put it up, and it goes in.”
MEI advances to face the winner of Friday’s late semifinal between the Duchess Park Condors and Sa-Hali Sabres for all the marbles (Saturday, 5:30 p.m., LEC Arena Bowl).
“I think it’s really exciting,” Tatlock said, looking ahead to the chance to play in the arena bowl. “But we just have to lock in and take care of business, finish the job.”
NO. 2 SA-HALI 55 NO. 3 DUCHESS PARK 52
BY DAN KINVIG (Special for Varsity Letters)
If Garry Kasparov and Bobby Fischer are among your heroes, if watching Anya Taylor-Joy in The Queen’s Gambit is your jam, and if you obsess over your rating on Chess.com… Friday evening’s 3A semifinal clash between the Sa-Hali Sabres and the Duchess Park Condors was the game for you.
In what could aptly be described as a high-stakes chess match, testing both coaches’ X-and-O skills and demanding maximum discipline from the on-court participants, it took all of the Sabres’ skill and will to grind out a 55-52 triumph that went right down to the final buzzer.
Both teams leaned on airtight zone defences to keep their opponents’ offensive production to a minimum – Sa-Hali with a 2-3 variety, and Duchess Park with a trapping 1-3-1.
There wasn’t a basket scored in this game that wasn’t hard-earned, and indeed, the outcome wasn’t settled until a last-gasp attempt from beyond the arc by Duchess Park’s Maggie Malfair fell short, setting off a celebration for the weary Sabres and their fans.
How much of a grind was it? Well, in the aftermath, Sa-Hali head coach Jody Vosper identified a box-out, of all things, as a game-breaking play in the final minute.
“We had one key blockout down the stretch – Courtney Grant, No. 13,” he related with a smile. “I’d been pleading with them to block out, and she did it, and the ball went out of bounds and we got it. A defining moment of the game.
“We were struggling to get rebounds, and credit to Duchess, they out-battled us on the boards and made it a game. That was what brought them back into it. They’ve got some great players on their team, and I’ve known Louise (Holmes, Condors manager) for 20-plus years. I just give them a lot of credit. They gave us a really hard go.
“My team, I love them so much. We have so much fun, and we respect them so much for everything they they do. They’re a true team.”
It felt appropriate that the score was knotted 40-40 through three quarters, and the fourth quarter featured myriad lead changes as the two teams battled back and fourth.
The Sabres eventually found a bit of breathing room, going up 53-48 with 2:15 remaining after Nevena Nogic drilled a baseline jumper when the Condors sagged off her just a little bit too far.
Duchess Park’s Zahra Ngabo made a couple big plays to resuscitate her squad – she got a steal and fed Mercedes Black for a breakaway layup, then knocked down a jumper on the Condors’ next possession to get her team back to within 53-52 with just over a minute left.
The score stayed stuck there, as the teams traded frenetic defensive stops. Nogic went 2-for-2 from the free throw line in the dying seconds to provide the final margin, and Malfair’s would-be game-tying shot was off the mark.
In a rather low-scoring game, Nogic and Ngabo found just enough space to operate to stage a compelling scoring duel.
Ngabo, a versatile Grade 10 guard, continued to build her case for a tournament all-star nod, counting four three-pointers among her game-high 26 points, adding eight rebounds and four steals to her tally. Black added nine points for the Prince George squad.
Sabres senior Nogic, meanwhile, racked up 24 points of her own, absorbing an incredible 11 fouls on her way to a 11-of-13 performance from the charity stripe.
Isabel Phillips added 12 points for Sa-Hali, and Iyin Aina registered nine points and 11 rebounds while spearheading her team’s defensive effort.
“It was definitely stressful,” Nogic said with a smile afterward. “But we focused on staying composed and taking it one play at a time. I think what really got us this win was our teamwork together. If we made one mistake, we forgot it and moved on to the next play.”
The Sabres advance to face the MEI Eagles for the 3A title on Saturday (5:30 p.m., LEC Arena Bowl). The two teams met once earlier in the season, with the Eagles eking out an eight-point decision.
“It was at the Tessa tournament, in Holy Cross’s gym,” Vosper recalled. “We actually had a five-point lead in the third quarter, and they made a run and got that lead up to eight and we just couldn’t claw back.
“We’re going to have to play our best basketball. We played them once and it was a lot of fun, so I imagine tomorrow will be fun again.”
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.
