Welcome to Day 2 of the 2024 B.C. girls high school basketball championships.
We’ll do our best to give you game recaps of all four quarterfinals in this tier being played today.
Please continue to check back throughout the day for updates.
As well, go to VarsityLetters.ca to catch up on all of the other reports from the Quad-A and Triple-A games being played here at the Langley Events Centre.
B.C. SENIOR GIRLS CHAMPIONSHIPS
DOUBLE-A
TOP HALF DRAW
No. 1 MULGRAVE 73 vs No. 8 PACIFIC ACADEMY 50
By Nicolas Hauka (Special for Varsity Letters)
No.1 ranked and tournament favorites, West Vancovuer’s Mulgrave Titans moved one step closer to a repeat appearance in the title game with a 73-50 win over the No. 8 Pacific Academy Breakers on Thursday afternoon at the Langley Events Centre.
Led by Deanna Naemi’s eight points, Mulgrave exploded for a 24-point first quarter. Pacific Academy went toe-to-toe with the heavyweights in the second frame, outscoring them 17-15. Mandy Wandzura finished with a team-high seven points in the quarter.
Despite a much improved second quarter Pacific Academy found themselves down 39-26 going into half. The Breakers came out of the second half like they knew their season was on the line. Sarah Ude’s six points propelled the Breakers into another excellent quarter and saw them heading into the fourth down just 50-41.
With a slim nine-point lead the Titans showed no panic whatsoever. The fourth quarter was a barrage of made Titan three-pointers. Maryam Morjarradi hit two consecutive shots from behind the arc. Not to be outdone, Eva Ruse hit two three-pointers of her own extending the lead and putting a dagger in the heart of the Breakers.
“Slow it down, slow it down,” Titans Head coach Claude Leduc could be heard yelling and gesturing to his players as he instructed them to bleed the rest of the clock out. That, the Titans did. By surviving a determined effort by the underdog Breakers and capitalizing on their massive first and fourth quarters to a commanding 23-point victory.
The Titans will now play the No.5 St. Thomas More on Thursday, after the Knights rallied for a massive victory against bitter rival No.4 Notre Dame in another provincial quarterfinal.
No. 5 ST. THOMAS MORE vs No. 4 NOTRE DAME
By Nicolas Hauka (Special for Varsity Letters)
LANGLEY — ‘Pressure’ is a word you frequently hear No. 5 St. Thomas More Knights coach Cassie Lauang yell to her players throughout the game.
That word perfectly encapsulates the way the Knights play the game at both ends of the.
It doesn’t matter if they’re on defense playing their vaunted full-court press system, or on the offensive side of the ball driving to the rim with their speedy guard trio, the nights are always at full speed.
In a quarter-final matchup Thursday at the 2024 B.C. senior girls Double-A basketball championships, the Knights took on a much taller, stronger No. 4 Notre Dame Jugglers squad.
For Lauang, it had all the makings of a game she thought might come down to the wire.
“We knew it was going to be a tough game,” she said after her team rallied then hung on for a 52-29 win and spot in Friday’s 11:45 a.m. semifinal against the defending B.C. champion and No. 1-seeded Mulgrave Titans of West Vancouver. “Respect to Notre Dame. They shoot the ball well and move in transition.”
The game started with the Notre Dame asserting their dominance on the glass. Not many shots were going in for the Jugglers, but due to the sheer volume of offensive boards they were getting they took an early 10-4 lead.
The Knights struggled on offense for much of the opening frame settling for contested layups in the paint and tough mid-range shots that just weren’t going down.
The momentum was with the Jugglers until the last couple minutes of the quarter when STM managed to weather the storm and cut the lead to 10-7 going into the second.
The second quarter was a back-and-forth battle.
The Jugglers led by Kaitlyn Chan’s three-point sharpshooting and Anastasia Kalpdis’s tough layups and precise passing had Notre Dame in control and in the lead the entire frame.
STM was playing tenacious defense but hadn’t turned to their full-court press yet.
The Jugglers took a 25-18 lead and all of the game’s momentum into the half, but all of that was about to change.
Lauang had a plan in mind all along.
“We knew we had to catch them off guard a little bit, so, we wanted to press at the right time. We thought coming out of half that was going to be the way to do it.”
The third quarter began. Behind that full-court press and their guard trio of Kyla Limon, Demicah Arnaldo, and Mia Beilveau, the Knights started to take off.
It started with Beilveau stealing the ball from a Juggler in transition and laying it in for two. Seeing Beilveau grab a steal, or intercept an errant pass was a common sight all night.
After Knight’s three-pointer, Beliveau drove into the lane and with a defender all over her laid it in the bucket with her left hand.
In a crazy two-minute sequence the game was tied.
The second member of the Knights trio decided it was her turn to take center stage. Limon hit a three of her own. On the Knights’s next possession, she caught a pass and then crossed over, drove into the lane, and hit a ridiculous layup.
With a raucous STM crowd supporting their team and screaming at the top of their lungs, the Knights were now the ones with all of the momentum.
Notre Dame showed tremendous mental toughness fighting their way back to take a 31-30 lead.
Then it was Arnaldo’s turn and she did it by forcing steals, distributing passes to her open teammates, and leading fast breaks with layups of her own. Before you could blink it was STM’s game again, with the Knights taking a 39-31 lead into the fourth quarter.
After the Knights speedy guard trio extended their lead 47-33 the game seemed all but over, but the jugglers wouldn’t go down without a fight.
Notre Dame settled down and started to play patiently. Suddenly not affected by STM’s full-court press the Jugglers came roaring back.
Maecon Glifoner and Anastasia Kalpdis led the way, overwhelming the Knights by forcing turnovers and finishing off those turnovers with tough layups in transition. Suddenly a game that seemed all but over was 47-40 with just 3:03 to go.
After another STM turnover, Chan hit a three-pointer with a defender in her face and the lead was even slimmer. The Jugglers started to foul with under two minutes left and STM couldn’t finish at the line.
Missing four free throws in a row, the Jugglers capitalized. Chan hit another massive three cutting the lead to 52-46 and then after forcing another STM turnover Chan pulled and swished another to pull her team within three.
After fouling, STM missed two more free throws gave Notre Dame the chance for the comeback of a lifetime.
The Jugglers inbounded the ball with just 5.8 seconds to go. Chan had the ball in her hands and drove left looking for space for the game-tying three, but there was none.
She was forced to drive into the lane instead and tried to hit a contested layup and draw a foul, Notre Dame’s last hope. The shot went up, hit the rim, and fell out. The Knights escaped with a massive victory, punching tickets to Friday’s Final Four.
BOTTOM HALF DRAW
5:15 p.m. — No. 10 BRITANNIA vs No. 2 HOLY CROSS
By Aaron Martin (Special for Varsity Letters)
LANGLEY — Another year, another trip to the final four.
The No. 2-ranked Holy Cross Crusaders got one step closer to the big dance on Thursday evening, delivering a dominant 57-40 win over the 10th seed Britannia Bruins.
Grade 10 forward Solene Jackson earned Player of the Game Honours after a terrific two-way performance, not only serving as a focal point of a suffocating Crusaders defense, but also notching a team-high 14 points to boot.
And while Holy Cross will need to be more efficient on the attack as they head into battle with the province’s elite squads, their defense proved to be a championship-ready if their showing against the Bruins was any indication.
Overall, it went well,” assessed HC head coach Joseph Vinluan. “They’re definitely a scrappy team, but we managed to over come any adversity we faced throughout the game. The biggest thing is that we were excellent defensively. We did well collapsing them with our defense and taking away their spacing. They do a lot of motion and try to use that to drive plays inside, but our girls did well to take that away.”
However, Vinluan knows that execution on both ends is going to be paramount in the final four, and maybe, beyond.
“As to where we can improve, the biggest thing is just minimizing the little mistakes – holding onto the ball and not giving it away. Ball control is so important.”
The Crusaders will need to be on top of their details if they want to advance beyond the tournament semifinals. After all, the semis is the round in which they found themselves bounced from the 2023 tournament after an 86-36 loss to the eventual champion Mulgrave Titans.
Vinluan wasn’t shy in noting that game, that loss, serves as a key motivator for a lot of his squad.
We’re a lot more experienced this year. A lot of these girls were here last season, and they know what it felt like to lose the way we did. They absolutely want the chance to redeem themselves when the opportunity comes.
With the way the bracket is laid out, the Crusaders will have to get to the tournament finals if they want another shot at downing the Titans. But before that, they’ll have to take down the No. 3-ranked Langley Christian Lightning, who won their semifinal berth with a dominant win of their own against the St. Pat’s Celtics on Thursday.
No. 3 LANGLEY CHRISTIAN 95 vs No. 11 ST. PATRICK’S 33
By Aaron Martin (Special for Varsity Letters)
LANGLEY — Two games into the Double A Championships, and the Langley Christian Lightning have passed both tests with flying colours.
On the heels of a 95-33 rout over the Nechako Valley Viqueens in their tournament opener last night, the Lightning followed it up with a brilliant 79-45 win over the St. Patrick’s Celtics on Thursday, a game in which they led by as many as 40 points.
Full credit to the 11th-seeded Celtics, who came in and were aggressive and opportunistic in the early goings. Flashing all of the grit that got them an upset win over Southridge in their tournament debut last night, the Celtics were within five points, down 26-21, as late as the second quarter.
However, as the game wore on, the Lightning’s length and scoring depth proved too much for Nechako Valley. Behind a dominant showing from senior guard Grace Bradshaw, the Lightning broke the game open with an electric 17-3 run in the second stanza.
Not only were they forcing the Viqueens into poor shots, but Langley Christian also rebounded well defensively and consistently took advantage in transition. Turning their defense into offense on seemingly every possession, the Lightning quickly took the game over entirely.
Having won their two games by a combined 96 points, one of Lightning head coach Danie Gardner’s primary tasks is to make sure her players aren’t getting ahead of themselves. Fortunately, she’s confident in her team’s ability to stay focused.
“It’s provincials,” Gardner said. “It’s a one-game-and-you’re-done kind of world. We know that we can only take this game-by-game, play-by-play. There are too many good teams in this tournament to think you’re better than anyone. If we want to beat the best teams, we have to play at our best, every time we hit the court.”
To that end, Langley Christian is slated to be an underdog for the first time of the tournament in the Final Four. Going up against the No. 2-seeded Holy Cross Crusaders, it’ll be a rematch of last year’s third-place matchup, which the Lightning took 61-39.
However, this time, the two sides will square off with championship aspirations still alive, with only one set to make the big dance.
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