Hailey Burnhan of Surrey’s Clayton Heights Riders faces Vancouver's Britannia Bruins during the 2023 Tsumura Basketball Invitational this past December at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2024. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

South Fraser Triple-A final: A year older, a year wiser, Surrey’s Clayton Heights Riders take zone championship spoils into a B.C. tourney return engagement after win over rival R.A. McMath!

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 […]

Riverside's Avery Sussex helped her Rapids to a TBI-title win in 2021 over the crosstown Terry Fox Ravens in what was a precursor to the 2022 B.C. senior girls Quad-A championships won by the Ravens. The 2022 Tsumura Basketball Invitational tips off a four-day run Wednesday and you can be sure there will be plenty of clues offered as to who might well win the 2023 B.C. crowns at Quad-A, Triple-A and Double-A. (Photo by Wilson Wong 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

Tsumura Basketball 2022: Our 32-team girls event tips off Wednesday in historic fashion with all four preseason No. 1’s set to take part!

LANGLEY — The 2022 senior girls Tsumura Basketball Invitational, set to open a four-day run Wednesday at the Langley Events Centre will unveil something of an historic opening-day draw.No official records have been kept, but our star-studded 32-team tournament, broken down into three separate draws this season, may well likely be the first to ever […]

R.A. McMath's Travis Hamberger (left), here being defended by Centennial's Leif Skelding at the 2018 B.C. Junior Varsity championship tournament, will lead his Wildcats into the 2020 TBI this coming December. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2020. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

TBI Boys 2020: With a plethora of positivity and plenty of warm hoops karma, B.C.’s best accept invites for an early-season date at the LEC!

NORTH DELTA — Jesse Davis. Everett Swaim. Justin Sunga. Bobby Mabeny. KC Ibekwe. Ben Manns. Caleb Lyons. Rav Randhawa. Clay Kurtz. Karn Shergill. Rourke MacDonald. Travis Hamberger. Gyan Sandhu. Rhys Maestre. Milan John. Daniel Marcelo. Ekman Sohal. Arars Jahangiri. Jaydan Bains. Kyle Kong.

Lord Tweedsmuir Panthers' rising senior guard Alyza Aikins will lead her team into the 2020 Tsumura Basketball Invitational this December at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2020. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

Twenty teams for TBI 2020! Our roster for the annual senior girls Tsumura Basketball Invitational features B.C.’s best of the best!

LANGLEY — Our collective fingers are crossed with the hope that a safe fall and winter season is on the horizon for high school sports in the province of B.C.And in the spirit of that positivity, we hope that one of the final highlights of a challenging 2020 calendar year will be the latest edition of […]

Duchess Park's Caleb Lyons will return for his senior season as one of the most seasoned go-to scorers in B.C. senior boys high school basketball. (Photo by Paul Yates property of Vancouver Sports Pictures 2020. All Rights Reserved)
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 […]

Simon Fraser's junior guard Jessica Jones (left) hits the deck to battle for a loose ball in this past Saturday's home loss to Alaska Anchorage at the West Gym. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2020. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Women's Basketball

With a new balance in her basketball core, gritty Simon Fraser Clan guard Jessica Jones elevates her game atop Burnaby Mountain

BURNABY — Jessica Jones always believed she had what it took to become the kind of player and leader positioned at the very core of the Simon Fraser women’s basketball team.

Walnut Groves Anneke Cairnie (left) eyes the basket in Saturday's TBI 2019 fifth-place game while being guarded by R.A. McMath's Hope Chan. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

TBI 2019 Girls: Walnut Grove Gators top McMath for fifth place as 2019-20 looks like the start of ‘deja vu, all over again’ for Langley power

LANGLEY — If it was a bit of an unfamiliar place for the Walnut Grove Gators to be on a mid-December Saturday, it’s understandable.For the past two years, the Gators have walked off the court here at the Langley Events Centre as champions of the Tsumura Basketball Invitational senior girls tournament, first behind the MVP […]

Kelowna's Nicole Torozan (centre) scoots through the paint against McMath's Liz Kennedy (left) and Kate Carkner. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

TBI 2019 Elite Eight: Depth, shooting, athleticism carry Kelowna Owls to decisive win over Richmond’s R.A. McMath Wildcats

LANGLEY — The 2019-20 Kelowna Owls are taking head coach Darren Semeniuk on a trip down memory lane.With a bevy of guards and an emerging pair of post players, the current edition that Semeniuk has cajoled into the Tsumura Basketball Invitational semifinals tonight (8:15 p.m.) following its decisive 70-39 win over the R.A. McMath Wildcats […]

St. Thomas More's Bella Gaspar (left) gets off a shot while defended by Brookswood's Quinn Jasper during Sweet 16 round of 2019 TBI on Thursday at the LEC. (Photo by Larry Lawson property of Portland State athletics 2019. All Rights Reserved) (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Basketball

FINAL EDITION: Utter madness hits TBI 2019 Sweet 16! Three Double-A schools crash Friday’s Elite 8 quarterfinals

LANGLEY —What a Thursday of upsets here at TBI.The Sweet 16 for 2019 will be remembered for the way that Double A teams sent the bracket into disarray.Hands up if you had Double A’s Langley Christian, Britannia and St. Thomas More knocking off, respectively, Quad A’s Terry Fox, Riverside and Brookswood?Utter madness!We’ve got all eight […]