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 Double-A games being played here at the Langley Events Centre.
B.C. SENIOR GIRLS CHAMPIONSHIPS
TRIPLE-A
TOP HALF DRAW
No. 5 Reynolds 69 No. 4 MEI 58
By Howard Tsumura
LANGLEY —In a lot of ways, you could say that Victoria’s Reynolds Roadrunners have the perfect front court.
Tall, long, athletic, versatile, tough and adaptable, the trio of Bella Graves, Sklyer Lubben and Saige Parfitt have got a lot of Bird-McHale-Parrish in their hardwood DNA.
On Thursday, the No. 5-seeded Roadrunners booked tickets to the Final For for the first time ever here at the B.C. senior girls Triple-A basketball championships, getting a dominant performance from that trio en route to a 69-58 victory over No. 4-seed MEI Eagles of Abbotsford, a victory defined by the fact that a team playing what amounted to be a six-player rotation got stronger and stronger as the game progressed.
“We work incredibly hard in the paint,” said Reynolds head coach Kim Graves, whose team faces the winners of No. 3 South Kam vs. No. 11 R.A. McMath in Friday’s provincial semifinals. “We rebound with tenacity. We put our bodies on the line. It’s so tough guard when you have two posts who play so well with each other.”
That pair was sensational.
The 6-foot-1 senior Bella Graves, the head coach’s daughter, was as tough as her 18 free throw trips would indicate, finishing with 27 points to lead all scorers.
The 5-foot-10 senior Skyler Lubben’s rapid growth and sky-rocketing confidence was on display for all to see, and she complimented Graves with 20 points, split evenly between the halves.
Yet the true difference-making ability of the forward group comes when 6-foot-1 forward/guard Saige Parfitt joins the party.
Her face-up skills and length are a truly unique compliment and when all three are together, as coach Graves admits, they are hard to beat.
Pariftt added 15 points on Thursday while guards Leah Parson, Amelia Aris and Ave White combined for 11.
MEI started strong and led by as many as 10 points (16-6) late in the first quarter.
Yet Reynolds never seemed to tire, and by the time the fourth quarter stretch rolled by, they were ready to dominate.
The Eagles’ quicksilver Grade 11 guard Olivia Sidhu, who led her team with 26 points, knocked down a triple with 6:02 left which had pulled her team to within 58-54.
But from that point on, the Roadrunners said ‘Beep, beep.’”
Reynolds proceeded to go on an 11-2 run in which every point score came in the deep paint as Parfitt, Lubben and Graves got bulldog-tough, especially on the offensive glass.
MEI is an incredible team but we match up with them well size-wise,” said Graves. “But speed-wise with Sidhu, we had to make adjustments. We said to her check ‘Don’t rebound, just stop the release in the full court on her because that is her bread-and-butter.’ We did a good job playing smart defence and it paid off.”
Forward Lola Reimer scored 13 for the Eagles.
And afterwards, coach Graves put her team’s pioneering run to the Final Four into perspective.
“It’s nice to have nothing to lose,” she said. “As far as we’re concerned, everything from here is icing on the cake. I think they are just super happy to be here. They are proud of themselves.”
5:15 p.m. — No. 1 BROOKSWOOD vs No. 8 COLLEGE HEIGHTS
By Howard Tsumura
LANGLEY —
BOTTOM HALF DRAW
By Howard Tsumura
No. 3 SOUTH KAMLOOPS 70 No. 11 R.A. MCMATH 33
LANGLEY — Feron Wallace dug in deep with her defensive assignment, and the harder she worked, the more her offensive game mirrored what she was doing.
That was the story Thursday in the quarterfinals here at the 2024 B.C. junior girls basketball championships as Wallace and the No. 3-seeded South Kamloops Titans punched their Friday Final Four tickets with a 70-33 win over the Richmond’s No. 11 R.A. McMath Wildcats.
Tasked with guarding McMath’s 6-foot-3 Mirella Fernandes Boshell, the 5-foot-10 Wallace hung tough, limiting her check throughout the game, while herself catching fire on the offensive end.
“Feron’s become a big part of the group,” said Titans’ head coach Del Komarniski, who watched as Wallace exploded for a game co-high 23 points, earning Player of the Game kudos as South Kam advanced to face the winner of Thursday’s other quarterfinal between St. Ichaels University School and W.L. Seaton in the semifinals on Friday.
“She’s been an under-ager with us the last two years and this year, she slid into a starting role. I anticipated this happening for her.”
Lucy Marchese also scored 23 points for the winners while point guard Kiana Kaczur added 13 more.
Tiana Maedel scored 22 of the Wildcats 22 points with no one else scoring more than four points.
Wallace’s game has suggested the level of depth coming to the fore for the Titans who are seemingly in that place that every B.C. tourney team wants to be.
“I like where we’re at,” said Komarniksi. “We have been playing good basketball the last month of season. They have roudned into form. We are playing hard and that is the most important thing.”
BOTTOM HALF DRAW
No. 2 ST. MICHAELS UNIVERSITY SCHOOL 68 vs No. 10 W.L. SEATON 32
By Howard Tsumura
LANGLEY — Avery Geddes is back as the starting point guard of the No. 2-seeded St. Michaels University School Blue Jags, and it goes without saying that that is great news for last season’s championship game finalists.
The Victoria school moved to within a victory of returning to centre stage on Saturday here at the LEC following its 68-32 win over Vernon’s 10th-seeded W.L. Seaton Sonics.
SMUS head coach Lindsay Brooke isn’t trying to even suggest that injuries are primed to be framed in a positive light, yet she will concur that Geddes’ injury forced a domino effect through the Jags’ roster, forcing others within the rotation to adopt new responsibilities in the starting point guard’s extended absence.
In the case of one of those guards — 2023 B.C. Defensive Player of the Year Alex Motherwell — has come to opportunity to thrive on the other end of the floor as an offensive leader as well.
That’s what jumped out at any watching Thursday’s win over the Sonics.
Motherwell, a 5-foot-8 senior, hit three threes and finished with a co-team high 15 points.
“One hundred per cent Alex is critical to us,” said Brooke, “and the team really did a phenomenal job when Avery was out. We really didn’t miss a beat and that is huge.
“It was great experience that other players had to step up and while you never want to lose anyone, it is beneficial if everyone can step up and play a different role.”
The other Blue Jags’ player scoring 18 points on Thursday?
None other than Charlie Anderson, the Grade 11 guard.
Brooke has loved how versatile her backcourt trio has been all season.
“When you look at Alex, Avery and Charlie, we rely on them to do everything,” Brooke said. “They are our best defenders, our scorers, and they all have a piece of that. They know each other and play off each other very well.”
Geddes and Olivia Vincent added nine points apiece for the winners.
Aleeya Ouch led the Sonics with 11 points.
St. Michaels University School will faces South Kamloops in a 5 p.m. semifinal on Friday. Last season, SMUS defeated South Kam 43-32 at the very same stage of the tournament.
No. 1 BROOKSWOOD 74 vs No. 8 COLLEGE HEIGHTS 36
LANGLEY — For a young shooter, Jordyn Nohr is showing that she is a master at some pretty old school habits.
Brookswood’s Grade 9 phenom was once again attracting about the same about of eyeballs as ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ as she took to the basketball court for the quarterfinals, leading her No. 1-seeded Bobcats to a 74-36 win over the No. 8 College Heights Cougars of Prince George.
On Thursday, as a veteran basketball sage seated along press row tracked her makes and misses, there was no mistaking the fact that this province’s next great superstar had missed her first four shots from the floor.
“But then she went 9-of-11 for the rest of the half”
Indeed, Nohr just continues to confound all who choose to put her under a microscope for the simple reason that in these parts, we don’t normally see ninth graders dictate a game’s flow the way she has so naturally done in this her rookie senior varsity campaign.
And then, after the game. you remind her of the four misses, and what you get in response are the kinds of words that tell you that she’s already known that shooting is an art which can’t be dictated by emotion.
“It’s not caring whether the ball goes in our not, just shooting and it will happen,” she says.
That simple statement pretty much summed up how she went on to score a game-high 25 points in the win before taking a seat for much of the second half.
“Jordyn is pretty good at knowing good shots from bad shots,” says her mom Chrissy Nohr, the team’s head coach, “and she is not going to turn down a (good) shot. I never have to worry about that with her.”
Meanwhile, one season after winning the B.C. junior title right here at the LEC, Brookswood is threatening to do the same in the core group’s first year at senior.
Senior Bryn Symons scored 13 points, including a second quarter in which she knocked down a trio of treys.
Grade 9 Emma Lenhoff aslso hit three triples and finished with 11 points.
Hazel Phillips added sevenand Ashley Vande Van added six more.
Summer Toor led the Cougars with 10 points, while Lorenn Caceres had seven and Haley Strand six.
Brookswood will face No. 5 Reynolds in a 3:15 p.m. semifinal on Friday.
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