SURREY — Last season’s trip to the B.C. senior girls basketball championship tournament was an ice-breaker moment for Surrey’s Clayton Heights Riders.
A group which has played together since sixth grade had arrived as a largely Grade 11 team on the big stage of the provincial Triple-A championships last March at the Langley Events Centre.
And falling behind 16-4 in the first quarter en route to an eventual 60-46 opening-round loss to the South Kamloops Titans, the lessons learned that day were nothing short of priceless.
Last week, the B.C. No. 10-ranked Riders put forth some ample proof that last year’s learning moments have indeed been absorbed in all of the right ways, defeating Richmond’s No. 7-ranked R.A. McMath Wildcats 57-53 in the finals of the South Fraser Triple-A championship tournament, hosted by the Surrey school.
Last season, McMath defeated Clayton Heights in the zone title game, one which sends its top two finishers to the provincial tournament.
“The thing was for the girls to have that belief that we could get back (to the B.C.’s),” said the team’s first-year head coach Chad Yarwood, whose team has been led throughout its journey by a pair of current seniors in point guard Sydney Chaisson and his daughter, 6-foot-3 centre Emma Yarwood.
“We have Emma and Sydney who are club players, and we also have a lot of athletes… soccer, lacrosse, ringette, so the big focus has been to come out and compete every day and just work hard,” coach Yarwood added.
That focus showed in the final last Thursday as the Riders eventually came out on top because of their ability to hit their free throws.
Clayton Heights went 14-of-20 from the stripe on the game, highlighted by senior guard Hailey Burnham, who went 6-of-8 from the line in the fourth quarter en route to finishing with 16 points, seven assists and six rebounds.
Yarwood led the way with 17 points, with 20 rebounds and six blocks. Chaisson had 10 points, five assists and five steals.
Burnham, who scored 16 points in last season’s opening round to South Kamloops at provincials, has been key to the maturing of the Riders this season with her tenacity.
“Her ability to drive it, take it to the basket and fast break has been big for us,” said coach Yarwood. “When Hailey goes to the basket, she does it with reckless abandon. When she gets just a bit of space, she goes and when she does that it creates a lot of room for Sydney and Emma.”
Guard Grace Stewart and forward Emily Mechan round out Calyton Heights’ all-senior starting five.
“It’s been really important that that group of five and a few others who have moved up… they’ve been a real balance for this team, especially when it comes to big games,” Yarwood added. “They have set the tone.”
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