Terry Fox senior point guard Cerys Merton has been there to give her team a helping hand throughout her entire high school basketball career. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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A Sunday Read: What defines the heart of Terry Fox’s UBC-bound point guard Cerys Merton? “She never turns down a battle!”

PORT COQUITLAM — Cerys Merton was born with a drive that needs no ignition.And these days, as we hit the stretch drive to the B.C. senior girls basketball championships, it’s a most fitting way to describe the energy and the presence that the Terry Fox Ravens’ senior point guard brings each time she sets foot […]

Bringing focus to team basketball, UFV Cascades' veteran forward Natalie Rathler (centre with ball) locks eyes with hard-cutting teammate Alexis Worrell during a game against the TWU Spartans. The 8-1 teams meet for a pair this weekend in Abbotsford. (Photo by Gibi Saini property of University of the Fraser Valley athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Cascades thriving on its “one tough shot” mantra! Canada West’s top defence keys empowering ripple effect as 8-1 UFV hosts 9-1 TWU in weekend summit series!

ABBOTSFORD — It’s an axiom which has echoed through countless Fraser Valley Cascades’ women’s basketball practices over the 20 years in which Al Tuchscherer has served as the program’s head coach.This season, however, you could say in a figurative sense that those echoes have become deafening.“We always say that we want to give teams one […]

Trinity Western first-year guard Shemaiah Abatayo, continually looking to take her game to another level, gets the toughest test of her season Thursday. Abatayo's 8-0 Spartans entertain the 7-1 Fraser Valley Cascades at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Mark Janzen property of Trinity Western athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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B.C. women’s hoops game of the year! It’s 8-0 Trinity Western against 7-1 Fraser Valley in what’s shaping up as a classic clash Thursday night at the LEC!

LANGLEY — They are historic geographic rivals dating back to their days on the provincial college circuit when the British Columbia Collegiate Athletic Association was perhaps the longest league moniker in all of North American post-secondary sports.And they’ve spent a good long time building up their respective programs since moving up to U SPORTS.Yet on […]

Terry Fox's Lauren Clements, Alisha Weloy and Ana-Maria Misic traded in their Ravens garb for a moment this week for a sneak peak of what the trio will look like in UFV Cascades' colours next season. The three are back in uniform tonight as B.C.'s No. 1-ranked Quad-A team opens play at the Tsumura Basketball Invitational at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Dan Kinvig property of University of the Fraser Valley athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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A trio of Ravens sign with Fraser Valley Cascades women’s basketball: Misic, Weloy, Clements chart their Canada West futures together!

LANGLEY — In announcing on Thursday the signing of three players from the B.C. Quad-A No. 1-ranked Terry Fox Ravens senior girls basketball team, Fraser Valley Cascades head coach Al Tuchscherer was posed a question whose answer would speak best to the total impact of incoming the trio.If you were coaching a three-on-three team of […]

Simon Fraser's Jessica Wisotzki has undergone a renaissance in her offensive game at the university level. (Photo courtesy Simon Fraser athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Jessica Wisotzki: How the simple game of one-on-one helped show Simon Fraser’s super sophomore the way to unlock her true scoring talents!

BURNABY MOUNTAIN — Sometimes simple works best. Just ask Jessica Wisotzki.As the Simon Fraser women’s basketball teams continues preparation this week for its Great Northwest Athletic Conference opener Saturday (7 p.m.) in Bellingham against its arch rivals, the Western Washington Vikings, perhaps you have noticed a defined uptick in the sophomore guard-forward’s scoring numbers throughout […]

The Trinity Western Spartans headed into their Canada West bye week with a perfect 4-0 conference record. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Off to a perfect 4-0 start, Trinity Western Spartans women’s hoops reaps rewards of studious work during 2020’s cancelled campaign!

LANGLEY — They are the kinds of numbers which, through the real-life rigours of a cancelled COVID campaign, seem even more distant and faded than they really are.Yet ask Trinity Western women’s head basketball coach Cheryl Jean-Paul about the early signposts she has spotted with her Spartans’ club in the formative stages of the Canada […]

A new season, his 21st atop Burnaby Mountain, is just now underway for Simon Fraser head women's basketball coach Bruce Langford, who today, on Nov. 16, celebrates his 70th birthday. (Photo by Paul Yates property of SFU athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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Happy 70th birthday, Bruce Langford! The amazing journey of Simon Fraser’s ageless women’s basketball coach!

BURNABY MOUNTAIN — Ask Bruce Langford how many more seasons he is planning on coaching the Simon Fraser women’s basketball team, and instead of providing a direct answer, he quotes his wife Leslie.“When we go out to dinner with couples our age, they all bring up this ‘When is Bruce going to retire?’ stuff,’” Langford […]

Hailey Counsell's third season of play with the UBC Thunderbirds will sees her ascend to the biggest role of her U SPORTS career as one of the team's acknowledged veteran players. (Photo by Richard Lam property of UBC athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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UBC women’s hoops 2021-22: War Gym a land of opportunity as youthful, untested ‘Birds open post-Huband era Thursday vs. TWU Spartans!

VANCOUVER — Its veterans are staring opportunity square in the face, and its rookies are going to get a chance to show early all it is that they are capable of becoming,It’s not the simplest of tasks to quantify just how different the first UBC Thunderbirds women’s basketball team of the post-Deb Huband era will […]

Fraser Valley point guard Maddy Gobeil and the rest of Abbotsford's Cascades learned a lot about their potential and process with a series of three preseason games against some of the best competition in Canada. (Photo by Dan Kinvig property of University of the Fraser Valley athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Women's Basketball

UFV Women’s Basketball 2021-22: Emerging Cascades keep bar set high following a revelatory three-game test against nation’s best teams!

ABBOTSFORD — Even in the best of times  it’s a difficult proposition to put together a preseason schedule and know precisely the level of competition you’re going to be facing.Factor in the uncertainties of COVID as well as the returning status of any number of opposition veterans forced to keep one eye on their academic […]

Simon Fraser's Jessica Jones has endured to enter her sixth season atop Burnaby Mountain. On Tuesday, SFU's senior guard was voted the GNAC's Preseason Player of the Year by the conference's coaches. (Photo property of SFU athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Women's Basketball

The rise of SFU’s Basketball Jones: Jessica Jones doubted her game early, but with perseverance Simon Fraser’s senior guard named 2021-22 GNAC Preseason Player of the Year!

BURNABY — Tuesday was a day for Jessica Jones to understand, with a veteran’s perspective, the meaning of perseverance in the face of adversity.After discovering that she had been named the GNAC’s women’s basketball 2021-22 Preseason Player of the Year, Simon Fraser’s energetic, shot-making senior guard put it all into words as best she could.“It’s […]