LANGLEY — The Brookswood Bobcats junior girls basketball team can hit its share of threes, but it’s most recognizable trait is the talent of its own Big Three.
Jordyn Nohr, Ashley Vande Ven and Emma Lehnhoff not only combined for 45 points in leading No. 3-seeded ‘Cats past the No. 1-seeded Oak Bay Breakers of Victoria 49-36 in Saturday’s B.C. Junior Girls Basketball Championship at the Langley Events Centre, they did it as a trio of starting Grade 8’s, hinting at one heck of a bright future for a team growing up in the shadows of the Langley Events Centre.
“We have been playing together for a really long time so it’s just going out there and being confident,” said Nohr, the 5-foot-9 guard who was chosen the tournament MVP after scoring a co-game high 19 points.
“Our team believes in us, they cheer us on so loudly,” added the daughter of former Canadian national team point guard Randy Nohr. “It’s fabulous and it really encourages us.”
One of the highlights of the game from a Brookswood perspective was watching the cohesion between Nohr and fellow Grade 8 Vande Ven, the 6-foot-1 forward who brought the kind of face-the-basket skill and rim protection ability so rarely seen in a JV setting.
Vende Ven finished with 19 points, yet most impressive was the way she took control of the game when her team needed it most.
“Her first half wasn’t great, at halftime we told her she had to own the paint and she did,” said Brookswood head coach Chrissy Nohr (Jordyn’s mom) of Vande Ven’s play over the final 16 minutes. “She really stepped it up.”
Trailing 23-19 to start the second half, the Bobcats tied the score when Nohr sent a bullet pass down the court which a sprinting Vande Ven caught and converted into a fast-break lay-in.
Nohr’s three pointer with 4:40 remaining in the third gave the Bobcats the lead and they never looked back the rest of the game.
In the fourth quarter, another big Nohr triple and several impressive post-up buckets by Vande Ven put the game out of reach for the Breakers, who were led by the 17 points of 5-foot-9 forward Eden Henderson.
Yet it was hard to ignore the defensive effort put forth by the Bobcats, including a third quarter in which the team limited Oak Bay to just three points, all coming from the free throw line.
To that end, coach Nohr couldn’t look past the contributions of Lehnhoff.
“Emma’s defence got us to the final,” she said. “She shut down eveyrone’s best player and she really got us to the final. Her defence was outstanding.”
One trend this week during the senior varsity portion of the B.C. girls championships was the number of difference-making Grade 9 talent playing alongside their Grade 11 and 12 counterpart.
To that end, would the Bobcats’ entire junior team move up to the senior team next season?
“That’s the million dollar question and we haven’t decided for sure,” said Chrissy Nohr.
So stay tuned.
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Hi Howard. I missed the AAAA blog on the girls championship game. Really looked forward to it but it never came. Will you be publishing it? Truly a great game, and your column makes it even more memorable.