Riverside post Natalie Curley does her best to move the ball facing a tenacious Burnaby Central defence on Thursday in the quarterfinal round of TBI 2022 at the LEC. (Photo by Ryan Molag property Langley Events Centre-TFSE 2022. All Rights Reserved)
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TBI Super 16 quarters: Quad-A No. 1 Riverside prevails, but everyone finding out that Burnaby Central is for real!

RIVERSIDE 73 BURNABY CENTRAL 53By Howard TsumuraLANGLEY — Don’t try tell Paul Langford that his Quad-A No. 1-ranked Riverside Rapids are advancing to the Tsumura Basketball Invitational Super 16 Final Four on the strength of a 20-point win over the Burnaby Central Wildcats.Sure, the Rapids beat the Burnaby Central Wildcats 73-53 in the quarters on […]

Okanagan Mission's Kanani Coon helped her Kelowna-based Huskies past Sir Winston Churchill and into Friday's Final Four at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Ryan Molag property Langley Events Centre-TFSE 2022. All Rights Reserved)
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TBI Super 16 quarters: Three seasons after winning 2019 Tsumura title, Okanagan Mission tops Churchill for Friday Final Four berth!

OKANAGAN MISSION 57 SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL 49BY Howard TsumuraLANGLEY — Last season’s Tsumura Basketball Invitational just managed to beat the shutdown of all high school basketball tournaments in the new year owing to the spread of the Omicron variant.Still, the threat was still real enough to keep up-country teams on a travel ban and off […]

Eva Ruse of the Mulgrave Titans scored a dozen points Friday as her West Vancouver squad topped SMUS of Victoria 54-45 in the quarterfinals of the TBI Super 16. (Photo by Wilson Wong 2022. All Rights Reserved)
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TBI Super 16 quarters: Another Titan-ic effort from Mulgrave’s Wilson-Talib-Ruse-Xu quartet proves to much for SMUS Blue Jags!

MULGRAVE 54 SMUS 45By Howard TsumuraLANGLEY — Ask Claude Leduc about one of the most talented Grade 11 quartets in the B.C. senior girls high school basketball world, and head coach of the Mulgrave Titans seems to take a zen moment before offering his reply.“They radiate calm, they radiate ‘We got this’ and they are […]

Lord Tweedsmuir's Sevene Grewal finished with a game-high 24 points as the Panthers topped Langley's RE Mountain Eagles 65-52 in the first semifinal of the Local 8s semifinals at TBI 2022 on Thursday at the LEC. (Photo by Ryan Molag property Langley Events Centre-TFSE 2022. All Rights Reserved)
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Tsumura Basketball 12.15.22 Day 2: Full reports from the Rising 8’s and Local 8’s semifinal clashes at the LEC!

By Howard TsumuraLANGLEY — Thanks for coming back for Day 2 of the 2022 Tsumura Basketball Invitational.We have decided to present the Rising *’s and Local 8’s as a standalone post.I will be following with game-by-game separates on each of Thursday’s four Super 16 quarterfinals on another posting.RISING 8 BRACKETSEMI-FINALSVERNON 61 COLLEGE HEIGHTS 57By Howard […]

Credo Christian's Mikayla Stam (right) tries to shake the coverage of Maple Ridge's Jenna Hampton during Local 8 opening-round action Wednesday at the LEC. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2022 All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

FINAL EDITION! Tsumura Girls Basketball 2022 has put Day 1 in the books! We’ve got reports and photos from all 16 games right here!

LANGLEY — We have officially gone FINAL on Day 1 of the 2022 Tsumura Basketball Invitational.And we’re proud to offer you, our loyal readers, stories on all 16 championship round games, all with live quotes from coaches and players, and all with game photographs.A huge tip of the Tsumura cap to my LEC mates Gary […]

Riverside's Avery Sussex helped her Rapids to a TBI-title win in 2021 over the crosstown Terry Fox Ravens in what was a precursor to the 2022 B.C. senior girls Quad-A championships won by the Ravens. The 2022 Tsumura Basketball Invitational tips off a four-day run Wednesday and you can be sure there will be plenty of clues offered as to who might well win the 2023 B.C. crowns at Quad-A, Triple-A and Double-A. (Photo by Wilson Wong 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Tsumura Basketball 2022: Our 32-team girls event tips off Wednesday in historic fashion with all four preseason No. 1’s set to take part!

LANGLEY — The 2022 senior girls Tsumura Basketball Invitational, set to open a four-day run Wednesday at the Langley Events Centre will unveil something of an historic opening-day draw.No official records have been kept, but our star-studded 32-team tournament, broken down into three separate draws this season, may well likely be the first to ever […]

Her combined two-point, three-point and free throw percentage numbers put Simon Fraser's Jessica Wisotzki in a rare category of shooters as the Red Leafs set to open GNAC play Saturday against Western Washington at the West Gym. (Photo by Paul Yates property of Simon Fraser athletics 2022. All Rights Reserved)
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She’s 196 per cent Wiz! It all adds up for Simon Fraser’s Jessica Wisotzki who is “…shooting the three better than anyone we have ever had” Red Leafs set for GNAC opener against WWU Vikings!

BURNABY MOUNTAIN — Steve Nash, Reggie Miller, Mark Price, Steve Kerr… and Jessica Wisotzki.Huh?The numbers never lie, and on a Thursday morning ahead of his team’s Great Northwest Athletic Conference season-opener this Saturday at home to the powerhouse Western Washington Vikings, Simon Fraser Red Leafs’ veteran head coach Bruce Langford is asked the impossible: Can […]

We've got the latest updates to boys and girls schedules for TBI 2022 at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Wilson Wong 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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TBI 2022: Burnaby Central boys, Pitt Meadows girls draw into the fold after late cancellations, latest draws now available

LANGLEY TOWNSHIP – There have been a pair of late changes to both boys and girls Tsumura Basketball Invitational eight-team draws, prompting us to re-publish those affected brackets.In the boys TBI, Langley Secondary has dropped out of the Langley-Surrey region eight-team draw. Taking their place will be the Burnaby Central Wildcats, who will now oppose […]

Riverside's Avery Sussex and the rest of her Rapids shoot for the first B.C. senior girls varsity hoops title in school history this season. (Photo by Wilson Wong 2022. All Rights Reserved)
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B.C. senior girls Top 10 hoops rankings! As 2022-23 tips off, it’s Riverside, McMath, Mulgrave and Credo sitting as the team’s to beat!

LANGLEY — A new season of B.C. senior girls high school basketball begins next week.And to get you ready for the all big opening tip-offs, Varsity Letters presents the latest official pre-season rankings at all four tiers.It’s a talented quartet off tiers to be sure, and what makes it even more interesting is the fact […]

Fraser Valley's Deanna Tuchscherer and the rest of the Cascades have their highest national ranking in a decade this week at No. 2 in the latest U SPORTS national poll. (Photo by Tanner Geringer property of UFV Cascades athletics 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball University Women's Basketball

Made-in-B.C. and ranked No. 2 in the nation! Here’s three big reasons the Fraser Valley Cascades could be Bronze Baby contenders!

ABBOTSFORD — Ten years after, there’s a new band of basketball teammates shining the spotlight on the Cascades’ women’s basketball program at the University of the Fraser Valley.Precisely one decade after its most successful Canada West regular season, one it which it went 18-4 and was perched wire-to-wire within the top four of the U […]