LANGLEY — If you dissect an entire high school basketball season into its thousands upon thousands of shiny 10-minute quarters, there will always be one above all others that is worth its weight in gold.
It is, of course, the one that follows every other quarter that comes before it.
And because it arrives, full of mystery and anticipation, on the last day of the season’s last game, the fourth quarter of a championship final game is more times than not, every team’s ultimate test of stamina, innovation, teamwork and belief.
When that very juncture arrived on Saturday night amidst the hoopla of a 75th anniversary tournament finale in the highlighted Quad-A tier, every element and more had already been achieved on what had already been stamped as one of the most significant nights in the history of B.C. high school basketball.
From the 2,909 fans on hand at tip-off for Championship Saturday’s debut at the LEC’s Arena Bowl in what is believed to be the record for the largest single-game crowd to ever watch a girls high school basketball game in B.C. history, to the drum-tight 50-47 lead the hometown, No. 4-seeded Brookswood Bobcats held over North Delta’s No. 2-seeded Seaquam Seahawks as the fourth quarter was set to begin… it was a purist’s delight, the kind of game which left the door open for any dramatic possibility to unfold over the season’s final 10 minutes of play.
In the end, of course, Seaquam did just enough to beat Brookswood 68-67, repeating as top-tiered champions in a season where there seemed so little to choose between the tier’s top seeds 1-4 in Argyle, Seaquam, Riverside and Brookswood.
And yet by the time Seaquam’s Grade 11 forward Camryn Tait was stepping up onto the awards stage to accept her trophy as the event’s Most Valuable Player, there seemed to be no doubting the fact that for the second season in a row, the Seahawks had laid claim to all the spoils based upon it ability to summon a core strength and use it to produce one brief game-changing burst of excellence.
And when it hit Saturday night, in a game in which these two fast-forming rivals have schemed and then over-schemed to neutralize each other’s substantial weapons as best possible, it was clear it wasn’t going to come on the heels of, say, an epic 15-0 title-game run.
Saturday’s contest was instead a defensive case study in bend-but-don’t-break by both teams.
Brookswood’s largest lead was seven points on two occasions early in the third quarter. Seaquam never led by more than four until it built a 68-62 lead with 3:14 left, then proceeded to not score the rest of the way.
It was in that environment of seven ties of 15 lead changes that the Seahawks reasoned at halftime that they could not afford to shy away from the strength that is their grand separator.
Their reasoning proved sound: If Brookswood wasn’t going to budge and the game was destined to be one hoop traded for another, why not do what you do best and trade their twos with your threes?
HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF
In last season’s B.C. championship final, the Seahawks chances of topping No. 1 seeded, defending champion Riverside appeared dim to poor when they fell behind 58-48 entering the fourth quarter.
It was at that same juncture, that Seaquam head coach Lucky Toor scrapped the zone defence he had played literally 99 per cent of the season.
The sudden switch to a 1-3-1 zone defence did the trick.
It took the Rapids by surprise, and in the first two-and-half minutes they went from 10 down to trailing only 59-57 as opposition misses were quickly converted at the other end into a barrage of three-point buckets.
Which brings us, one year later, to Saturday’s fourth quarter, or more precisely what was said by the Seahawks in their halftime locker room as reinforced what had to transpire if they were to repeat as B.C. champs.
“We said that we were going to shoot our way out of this one,” Grade 11 B.C. first team all-star guard Syra Toor explained later. “It was what was going to keep us in the game. I knew since I didn’t have a great shooting first half, I knew they were going to drop in the second. I just trusted myself and the work I had put in and I kept shooting.”
It seemed to happen lick clockwork because by the time the fourth quarter had rolled around, Toor was ready to keep her word.
Over a span of just 3:20 beginning about two-and-a-half minutes into the final frame, Toor hits her team’s next four shots, all three point buckets, as part of a 12-7 run, huge in not only turning a tight 52-52 contest into a 64-59 Seaquam lead, but widening the driving lanes for the few points the Seahawks would score the rest of the way as they hung on for the victory.
Coach Toor was at a loss to fully explain just why it took until the early stages of the fourth to find the right environment for the three-ball to start falling for his team.
But he did have one theory.
“I am not sure exactly what led to it all, but at the end of the day we weren’t shooting anywhere near our normal percentage, and that’s a little bit of the Arena Bowl effect with the depth perception,” he said, absolutely thrilled the girls finals were being played in the much larger venue for the first time, but correct in assuming that an adjustment period would take place over the course of the game.
“It’s just different because you’re not looking at a wall,” coach Toor said. “So at the end of the day I figured that might be an issue, so we started shooting more corner threes because you disn’t have to worry about everything that is behind the hoop.”
Whatever it was, Seaquam shot a tidy 5-for-11 in the fourth after going a combined 11-of-36 the first three quarters combined.
“We live and die by that shot sometimes, I am not going to lie,” he added. “But all I keep telling the girls is believe, believe, believe that we are going to shoot our way out of it. Let’s not change who we are. Let’s keep letting them fly.”
Added Tait of the chaos created when her team gets on a roll from outside: “That’s Seaquam basketball. We know things are sometimes going to be rocky, but trusting all the work we put in… that’s what it’s all about, knowing that things will fall into place.”
SO MUCH MORE IN STORE FOR JORDYN NOHR
After winning last season’s B.C. Triple-A title over SMUS behind the tournament MVP performance of the then-Grade 9 Jordyn Nohr, Brookswood made a seamless transition to the Quad-A ranks and gave every indication they were in the hunt for a title early.
Back on Dec. 14th, in the championship final of the Tsumura Basketball Invitational at the LEC’s Centre Court, Seaquam beat Brookswood 69-65, but not without Nohr scoring 40 of her game-high 50 points in the second half, as the Cats came back from 20 down in the first half to tie the score 63-63.
Given its flow, Saturday’s 2025 Quad-A championship final actually felt like a much lower-scoring game, but in reality it was actually one point higher.
Nonetheless, the Bobcats’ maturation as a team that can win with more than one consistent go-to force on offence has begun evolve.
On Saturday, Nohr, named to the tourney’s first all-star team, was once again excellent, not too far off a triple-double with 28 points, nine rebounds and seven assists.
“You always have to meet their compete level,” said Tait of the Bobcats. “And Jordyn is obviously an amazing player. It’s always fun to play against someone like her, and how she challenges us on the defensive end.”
Couple that with the 21 points, 14 rebounds and five blocks of fellow Grade 10 post/forward Ashley Vande Ven (Top Defensive Player and second team all-star), and Seaquam was, more than ever, having to find ways to stop two reliable scorers.
The Seahawks got balanced, double-figure scoring from four players, three of whom will return next season.
MVP Tait’s 21 points and nine rebounds led the way while Toor finished with 20, finishing 6-of-14 from long-range on the game.
Senior guard and first team all-star Mackenzie Henderson had 13 points in her final high school game while second team all-star Callie Brost, the two-sport standout who was also named a B.C. Quad-A first-team all-star at volleyball provincials, had 12 points and nine rebounds.
“My hats off to Brookswood,” said coach Toor. “I have the utmost respect for that team, for that coaching staff and for Jordyn Nohr. I told her that she didn’t let me sleep last night because I was up trying to game plan because of her and how dominant she is.”
A PIONEERING DELTA TEAM WITH A TEAM-FIRST MVP
Camryn Tait has already won two top-tiered B.C. championship titles and an MVP, and that’s all before suiting up for her senior season of hoops at Seaquam in the fall.
Growing up in a basketball family where she’s now equalled her dad, ex-Richmond High and UBC point guard Brian Tait, in B.C. senior varsity titles, she has above all else remained consistent in her team-first beliefs.
And that’s where her head was Saturday night when asked about receiving what amounts to the top individual honour in all of girls high school basketball.
“Obviously, it’s super special, but the banner … that’s where it’s all at,” she says of the B.C. School Sports honour that will soon occupy a space in the her high school’s home away from home.
“There’s nothing I’d rather have hanging up in the gym than a banner because it’s about the people I accomplished it with. It’s not about my personal accolades.
Last season, Seaquam was the first team in the history of Delta high school sports to win a B.C. senior girls provincial basketball title.
After Saturday, the Seahawks are now the first boys or girls basketball team at the junior senior or senior level from Delta to repeat as B.C. champions.
And through their journey from provincial junior champs in 2022, through a sixth-place finish at senior Quad-A in 2023, to now two-time Quad-A champs, Tait has been their guiding force.
And for a program enjoying its first period of sustained provincial excellence, she has become its flag-bearer of sorts with both her play and the visibility she has helped bring to a school which opened in the fall of 1977 and has previously seen two editions of its senior boys team each the top-tiered B.C. championship game (1988, 2003).
“To us, it means absolutely everything,” Toor said of Tait’s MVP in concert with a repeat title, “because as Camryn Tait goes, we go. Her getting (the MVP), that, to me, is an accumulation of the two years she has put together. And that is not taking away anything from (2024 winner) Avery Sussex (of Riverside). She was a phenomenal talent last year and it was well deserved. Avery deserved to win. But it’s just nice to see Camryn finally getting a little bit of recognition for everything she does for us, because she is such a selfless player.”
And with that the final fourth quarter of the final game of the season is over.
How will Saturday’s two championship combatants fare next season.
Brookswood will be more formidable than ever, based solely on the continued growth of the Nohr-Vande Ven duo.
Toor welcomes back a veteran core next season, but the dynamics will change through graduation and the loss of three-point ace Henderson, defensive leader Priya Toor and the dual post presence of Sydney Roufosse and Neelum Sidhu.
Syra Toor, Tait and Brost, however, all return to form a solid senior nucleus
“I just take the joy one year at a time and every year is a new challenge and kids find new roles,” Lucky Toor said Saturday, at the end of long night that ended with him climbing the ladder to clip that last strand of net for a second straight year. “But with this current group of Grade 11s and 12s, with all of their talent, we just had these huge aspirations.”
Could they have turned out any better, and could girls high school basketball in B.C. have taken a bigger step?
Here’s to a 75th anniversary season to remember.
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What a night! Incredible really, to see this all come together on the diamond anniversary with 4 great games, the last two coming down to a single point. Simone Biles is credited with the quote, “Work hard in silence; let your success be the noise.” Well, it was noisy Saturday night, girls basketball has arrived, welcome to the Arena Bowl! Congrats to Pacific Christian, SMUS, MEI and Seaquam on your thrilling Championship victories. Thank you to LEC and BCSS for putting this together. Thank you to all those who worked hard in silence. There were only WINNERS on Super Saturday…75 years in the making! Thank you Howard for your generous praise and coverage of girls basketball, no one does it better.