Walnut Grove senior forward Natalie Rathler (right) soars to the basket against Saturday against the Handsworth Royals, helping lead her Gators to the title at the No Regrets Classic tournament. (Photo by Blair Shier, www.blair.photo)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

TBI 2017: Walnut Grove’s Rathler brings the noise and the poise, Gators’ forward preps for B.C. title run, future with UFV Cascades

LANGLEY — Natalie Rathler has discovered that in order to stand at your true height, you first need to raise the height of your confidence. And with that said and done, it’s why the senior forward with Langley’s Walnut Grove Gators has been a player impossible to miss, especially if you’re one of those who loves […]

Oak Bay's Diego Maffia was the picture of focus Saturday in the Bays win over Holy Cross in the 2017 TBI final at the Langley Events Centre. (Wilson Wong/UBC athletics photo not to be used with out granted permission)
Holy Cross Crusaders' guard Gabe Takeawoa was at his best Friday, leading the Surrey school past Abby's SW.J. Mouat Hawks in the semifinals of the 2017 TBI. (Wilson Wong/UBC athletics photo not to be used without granted permission)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

From B.C. Final Four last March to Tsumura Basketball’s title-tilt on Saturday, all hail Holy Cross vs. Oak Bay at the LEC!

LANGLEY — When last we left Surrey’s Holy Cross Crusaders and the Oak Bay Bays of Victoria, we were right here at the Langley Events Centre. It was mid-March and the Crusaders were topping the Bays for third-place at the Telus B.C. AAAA championship tournament.

Russell Gilroy (right) of the Yale Lions battled against Terry Fox's David Chien on Friday at the Langley Events Centre. (Varsity Letters photo by Howard Tsumura)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

TBI 2017: Nothing going as planned, but wrenches thrown bring character to Final Four Friday matchups at LEC

LANGLEY — B.C.’s latest No. 1-ranked AAAA team won’t be there, but the only non-ranked, non-honourable mention team in the 16-team field here at the 2017 Tsumura Basketball Invitational will.

The back of Holy Cross Crusaders' guard Jamal Osei-Anim warm-up jacket told it all Friday morning at the TBI, as teams around the Greater Vancouver area mourned the loss of the Panorama Ridge Thunder's popular senior guard. (Varsity Letters photo by Howard Tsumura)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

TBI 2017 players, coaches carry heavy hearts on Friday following passing of beloved Raphael Alcoreza

LANGLEY — You couldn’t take more than a few steps around the Langley Events Centre Friday morning at the Tsumura Basketball Invitational without feeling an outpouring of compassion and grief from B.C.’s tight-knit high school basketball community following the tragic loss of Raphael Alcoreza.Sadly, the Panorama Ridge Grade 12 player, who was rushed to hospital after […]

Walnut Grove's Alisdair Coyle (left) contends with the athletic defence of Byrne Creeks' Martin Djunga on Thursday in the opening round of the TBI at the LEC. (Varsity Letters photo by Howard Tsumura)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

Day 1 at the 2017 Boys TBI: Quad A powers survive Sweet 16 to set up Top 10-filled quarterfinals

What a terrific round of games to open TBI 2017 at the Langley Events Centre. Here’s reports from all of today’s eight games as well as a full schedule of tomorrow’s games:

Sir Charles Tupper forward Joven Dhillon (right) is one of a host of Grade 11 starters fuelling the efforts of East Van's Tigers at this weeks Tsumura Basketball Invitational in Langley. (Wilson Wong/UBC athletics)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

TBI 2017: How Tupper has hit the upper-echelon, Tigers’ hoops in tip-top shape from top to bottom

VANCOUVER — Material trappings have never been a part of the blue-collar basketball culture at East Vancouver’s Sir Charles Tupper Secondary.

North Delta Huskies head coach Jesse Hundal places equal importance on the team's on-court work ethic and its off-court appreciation of program history. (Varsity letters photo by Howard Tsumura)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

TBI 2017: Future bright but history also key for North Delta’s tradition-honouring basketball Huskies

NORTH DELTA — It’s easy to have a soft spot for a classic era of B.C. boys high school basketball, that span during the early-to-mid 1970s when the growth in the popularity of the game was out of control, and the single-tiered championship final was a mass spectacle played in venues as large as the […]