BURNABY — They set a goal, four years ago, of giving themselves a chance to compete for a banner as Grade 12s at the B.C. senior girls AAA basketball championships.
On Wednesday, nobody had to remind Abbotsford’s Robert Bateman Timberwolves that they had indeed achieved their goal.
“They are a pretty calm and cool group, but the fact that they had just made the provincials, yeah, they were a little more giddy,” said proud head coach Dan Village after Bateman’s 84-50 win over the Killarney Cougars in a sudden-elimination provincial wildcard game Tuesday on a neutral court at Burnaby Central Secondary made their quest officially complete, making them school’s first-ever B.C. senior girls basketball provincial tournament qualifier.
“Even though we won (the Grade 9 B.C.’s), our whole goal was to compete for a banner at senior,” reminded Village. “So we thought around that time, we wanted to be the first team from our school to qualify for the Triple A provincials.”
Mission accomplished.
Senior Amira Jensen, who had dropped 10 treys in a Fraser Valley tourney-opening win over Centennial, hit another six triples in the victory over Killarney, while Grade 10 Jenna Gill added 14 more in the victory.
“Honestly, we looked tired,” admitted Village. “At the Fraser Valleys they sandwich in five games over four days if you’re not in the top four.”
For the T-Wolves, that meant beating Panorama Ridge 79-53 in a 9:30 a.m. game Saturday, then coming back at 5 p.m. with an 87-73 win over Lord Tweedsmuir. Those two wins guaranteed their spot in the wildcard round.
On Sunday, they lost 82-73 to Brookswood in the 5th-6th game, practiced Monday and then put everything on the line Tuesday.
“Our bench really stepped up and it was a good performance by everyone,” added Village.
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