B.C. Double A MVP Shemaiah Abatayo drives on Langley Christian's Makenna Gardner during B.C. Double A championship final Saturday at the sold-out LEC Centre Court. Trailing on the play is Britannia's Tiana Sacco. (Photo by Paul Yates property of Vancouver Sports Pictures 2020. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

A Sunday Read: Britannia’s B.C. AA girls hoops title “…is for East Van, for public schools, for a community which has been with us from Day 1′

LANGLEY — They weren’t underdogs, yet provincial high school basketball championships don’t exactly grow on trees in the East Vancouver neighbourhood they call home.And so on the occasion of Saturday’s 81-73 win over the Langley Christian Lightning in the championship final of the B.C. senior girls Double-A basketball tournament, the words of Britannia Bruins’ assistant […]

Abbotsford senior Lindsey Roufosse, guarding OKM's Makenna Jacklin, was a force Saturday collecting 10 points and 12 rebounds. (Photo by Paul Yates property of Vancouver Sports Pictures 2020. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

Marin Lenz’s 44 points net Abby star MVP spoils in win over OKM Huskies, but its forward trio also huge as Panthers win first crown since 1984

LANGLEY — In both the biggest the final game of Marin Lenz’s high school basketball career, the Abbotsford Panthers’ guard knew that her part of the bargain was to figuratively throw everything she had but the kitchen sink at Kelowna’s Okanagan Mission Huskies.On Saturday, in the B.C. senior girls Triple A final here at the […]

Semiahmoo players celebrate a 52-point win over Terry Fox, which surpassed the record 38-point win in 1990 by North Vancouver's Windsor Dukes as the largest in B.C. top-tiered senior girls championship final game history. (Photo by Paul Yates property of Vancouver Sports Pictures 2020. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

Semiahmoo’s win over Fox most decisive win in B.C. girls title-game history as Totems’ season peaks with the perfect basketball storm

LANGLEY — Exactly 30 years after the most decisive victory in B.C. senior girls top-tiered high school basketball championship finals history, the Semiahmoo Totems have arrived to re-set the bar as far as gold-medal moments are concerned.Led by the 29 points and 23 rebounds of 6-foot-2 forward and tournament MVP Tara Wallack, the Totems beat […]

Reegan Bond (right) of Kelowna's Dr. Knox Falcons was selected MVP of the B.C. junior championship final. (Photo by Vancouver Sports Pictures property of VSP 2020. All Rights Reserved)
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Adversity just what Dr. Knox ordered, but Falcons fight through to top SMUS and win 2020 B.C. junior girls championship

LANGLEY — Last weekend, while getting in little exercise up in Kelowna, Lisa Nickle took a spill and wound up tearing her Achilles.Not only was it painful, but it was a dose of adversity the head coach of the B.C. junior championship-bound Dr. Knox Falcons surely didn’t need.On Saturday morning, however, as her team stood […]

Victoria's SMUS Blue Jags beat Kelowna to earn a spot in Saturday's B.C. junior girls basketball final at the LEC. (Photo by Vancouver Sports Pictures property of VSP 2020. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

Kelowna’s Dr. Knox Falcons set to face Victoria’s SMUS Blue Jags in B.C. junior girls basketball final Saturday at the LEC

By Gary Ahuja (Special for Varsity Letters)LANGLEY — The Interior or Vancouver Island … where will this year’s championship trophy travel to? That is the question as the 2020 Junior Girls Basketball Provincial Invitational Tournament concludes.Kelowna’s Dr. Knox Falcons have their sights set on capturing the title while Victoria’s St. Michaels University School Blue Jags […]

The Terry Fox Ravens celebrate a win over Yale and a berth in Saturday's B.C. senior girls AAAA finals against Semiahmoo. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2020. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

Merton’s back-to-back coast-to-coast lay-ups spur Terry Fox’s late 10-0 run, Ravens top Yale in Final Four to draw Totems in Quad-A final!

LANGLEY — It was a basketball game whose flow, while filled with pace, seemed to be playing out as if being held on a short leash.No big swings either way, buckets being answered with buckets, stops being answered by stops. You know the drill.But then, midway through the fourth quarter, like something that just fell […]

Semiahmoo's Tara Wallack (right) finished with 27 points and 16 rebounds as the No. 1 Totems topped Walnut Grove for a chance to repeat as provincial top-tiered girls basketball champs on Saturday. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2020. All Rights Reserved)
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Totems’ time is here again! Coach McNeill lauds work rate, grit and depth performances as key factors in Final 4 win over WGSS Gators

LANGLEY — Allison McNeill is quick to point out there is no secret to the success of her defending B.C. senior girls Quad-A champion Semiahmoo Totems.“We work hard and that’s what gets you anything,” said head coach McNeill after No. 1-seeded Semiahmoo wore down Langley’s No. 4 Walnut Grove Gators to the tune of 105-78 […]

Abbotsford's Grade 9 star Malia Lenz (left) prepares to split the defence of Argyle's Holly Brewer (left) and Hope Pearmain on Friday in the AAA Final Four at the LEC. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2020. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

It’s Marin’s world, but Grade 9 Panthers are hardly bit players as Abby tops Argyle in AAA Final Four clash

LANGLEY — On Tuesday, Marin Lenz was named the Player of the Year in B.C. senior girls high school basketball.If you saw Lenz play on Friday, as the B.C. Triple A championships reached its Final Four, you wanted to give her yet another award: Decoy of the Year.Yes, she scored 32 points and was the […]

OKM Huskies' senior guard Melaina Corrado (centre) takes it hard to the rim against McMath's Caitlin Kippan (left) and Abby Bodden during B.C. AAA semifinal Friday at the LEC. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2020. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

Okanagan Mission Huskies revel in a defensive state of mind! Stops key an 11-0 run, win over McMath and berth in Saturday’s B.C. Triple A final

LANGLEY — When the Okanagan Mission Huskies came to Langley in mid-December for the Tsumura Basketball Invitational, they were an untested and relatively unknown entity in the world of B.C. high school girls basketball.After they beat the Britannia Bruins in the championship final, however, they set in place an identity which has made them one […]

With York House's Nadeen Wu in pursuit, Langley Christian's Sydney Bradshaw turns a corner in the key during fourth quarter action from Friday's B.C. 2A semifinal contest at the LEC. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2020. All Rights Reserved)
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They’ve put ‘The Shot’ behind them! No. 1 seed Langley Christian top York House to earn B.C. finals berth vs. No. 2 Britannia

LANGLEY — Makenna Gardner remembers the pain of ‘The shot’, and now that she and her Langley Christian teammates have officially exorcised the memories of last season’s B.C. semifinal OT loss to the G.W, Graham Grizzlies, it’s time for the Lightning to officially set its site on the school’s first B.C. girls basketball title.Sydney Bradshaw […]