LANGLEY — Day 1 of the girls 2025 TBI Super 16 tournament is in the books.
Hope you enjoy all eight of our game reports here!
Our special thanks today to Ian French, Wilson Wong and Gary Ahuja for their work, without which this report would not be possible!
— Howard Tsumura
GIRLS SELECT 16
QUAD A
VALLEYVIEW 48 ARGYLE GOLD 39
By GARY AHUJA
(Special for Varstiy Letters)
LANGLEY — Playing with a short bench on Wednesday night at Langley Events Centre, the Valleyview Vikes delivered a composed and disciplined performance in a 48–39 victory over the Argyle Gold Pipers.
With only six healthy players — plus one more sidelined by injury — head coach Karen Horsman praised her Kamloops-based team’s resilience.
“I am super proud of my girls and how they persevered through the game,” Horsman said. “They showed some great composure.”
Valleyview moved the ball efficiently, escaping double teams and consistently finding their post players inside. On the defensive end, the Vikes excelled in help-side coverage and secured key rebounds to prevent second-chance opportunities.
Early in the season, Horsman said the focus remains on evaluation. “It is great to win, but it is more about seeing what works for our team.”
Grade 9 point guard Sameera Gill was a standout, earning Player of the Game honours after scoring 17 points — including six of Valleyview’s eight in the fourth quarter. A poised floor general, Gill impressed in multiple facets.
“She is a true 1, which is hard to find,” Horsman said. “She’s not just great at ball handling, but also at creating turnovers and getting the fast break going.”
Valleyview also received double-digit scoring from Grade 11 forward Kennedy McKnight (12 points) and Grade 11 guard Claire McLoughlin (11). The Vikes have no seniors on the roster.
Argyle was led by Juliette Henry’s 16 points, but Valleyview maintained control throughout and never trailed in the game.
during Tsumura Basketball Invitational Select 16 opening-round action Dec. 10, 2025 at the Langley Event Centre’s South Court. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2025. All Rights Reserved)
HERITAGE WOODS 48 R.A. MCMATH 44
By GARY AHUJA
(Special for Varsity Letters)
LANGLEY — The Heritage Woods Kodiaks shook off a slow start to grind out a 48–44 victory over the R.A. McMath Wildcats on Wednesday morning on Day 1 of the Select 16 bracket at the Tsumura Basketball Invitational Girls Tournament at Langley Events Centre.
The Kodiaks managed just four points in a shaky opening quarter, struggling with rushed passes, turnovers, and the Wildcats’ pressure. But the game flipped in the second, where Heritage Woods outscored McMath 20–8 by finally establishing their inside game and leaning on their size advantage.
Heritage Woods led by as many as 15 points early in the second half with the Wildcats cutting the deficit down to four points before running out of time.
Addison Nielsen powered the comeback with 16 points, while Milana Zuzolo added 15 as the Kodiaks consistently found success in the paint. Head coach Alex Devlin said the early troubles came down to nerves.
“We were too excited at the start — bad passes, turnovers, and we didn’t handle the pressure very well,” Devlin said. “Once we settled in, we were finally able to establish our inside game and use our height.
Assistant coach Kelly Powell echoed the sentiment, praising the team’s resilience.
“They played hard and battled hard,” Powell said. “I’m proud of the girls — they all chipped in and did their different roles. There’s lots to learn still, but it was a good effort. We’re definitely a younger team after losing some players, but very athletic, and we’re excited to see what we can do.”
Powell added that early nerves were expected. “We were playing a little excited with all the energy the other team was bringing, but once we absorbed the pressure, we settled in and got into our natural flow.”
For McMath, Katie Kennedy scored 15 and Natalie Crasto added 10.
QUAD B
FERNIE 69 EARL MARRIOTT 49
By IAN FRENCH (Special for Varsity Letters)
LANGLEY — Pace, finesse and three-pointers are a few of the key elements that make up modern-day basketball, and the Earl Marriott Mariners and Fernie Falcons showed that they keep up with the times. Neither side was afraid to shoot from deep, and it didn’t take long to prove where their confidence came from. Out of the starting gates, the threes reigned supreme. Mixed with lightning-fast pace and ball movement, the game was off to a hot, high-scoring start.
Despite only having nine players dressed, Fernie was able to outlast the Mariners as the game progressed. It was a back-and-forth affair until the fourth quarter, when the Falcon turned on the jets and scored 12 straight points to earn a 69-49 win.
Reigning 10-time champs of their division, this is the first time the Fernie Falcon have appeared at the Tsumura Basketball Invitational, and their trip down was certainly a memorable one.
“We flew down. We left at three o’clock this morning to get here — in a complete blizzard,” chuckled Fernie Falcons head coach Jen Kennedy. “We’re grateful to be here because we didn’t even know if we were going to make our flight. The blizzard was so bad, it took us an hour-and-a-half to get to the airport. We blew a tire on the way, but we made it with 20 minutes until boarding.”
The tempo was clear from the opening tip. Both sides found themselves racing around like it was the Indy 500. This, as a result, led to tons of buckets on either side. With two minutes remaining in the first, the Falcon lead began to inflate, but the Mariners finished the frame strong, pulling within five points from a healthy mix of jumpers and inside drives.
The defence began to settle in throughout the second. Each team managed to trade threes until the Mariners went on a short 6-0 run to retake the lead. Shortly after, Fernie forward Billie Kennedy recognized a mismatch, posted up, spun and scored to end her team’s scoring drought. Not long after, three more points followed as the Falcons retook the lead in the final minutes of the frame, heading into the break with a one-point advantage, 30-29.
Mariners’ Iva Crepnjak started the third quarter the same way she finished the first half, with a swift driving layup for the lead. A few possessions later, she followed up on a miss in transition, scooped up the rebound and put back a layup for two. With five minutes to go, and trailing by three, Kennedy pulled up from beyond the arc and was clearly unfazed by the up-close defender as she cashed it — nothing but net. Each team traded blows, from in and outside the arc, but it was Fernie who began pulling away, as they went on a 10-3 run to close out the quarter.
In the fourth, Fernie expanded on its lead, going up by double-digits. Albeit briefly, the Mariners chipped away with their jump shots to make it tight once more but couldn’t overcome the deficit. With five minutes to go, it was all Fernie. They inflated their narrow lead to a large margin through consistent shot making and getting to the line en route to the 20-point victory.
“We don’t have anything to lose, we have everything to gain,” said head coach Kennedy regarding her halftime message to her squad. “So, dig in every possession, fly around, play hard defence, adjust, and just play our game.”
Fernie’s Kennedy, the daughter of the head coach and a former provincial team player, finished with a team-leading 16 points, and teammate Taylor Witbeck was not far behind with 15 of her own. Crepnjak led Earl Marriott with 16 points and Naya Seguin finished with 13, with three three-pointers.
SIR CHARLES TUPPER 40 R.E. MOUNTAIN 38
By HOWARD TSUMURA
LANGLEY — The Sir Charles Tupper Tigers have kept on improving their fortunes over the past two seasons.
On Wednesday, in their first-ever appearance at the Langley Events Centre, a lot of that quality showed when it mattered most as the East Vancouver team rallied from an early 11-3 deficit to hang on for a 40-38 win over the hometown R.E. Mountain Eagles as the Tsumura Basketball Invitational’s Select 16 pool opened its eight-game slate.
“You can see how quiet they were to start,” said Tupper co-coach Terry Loo. “And throughout the game, you could see them grow and mature. They started supporting each other out there and started doing the little things, which made a big difference.”
Trailing 17-9 after the first quarter, the Tigers opened the second quarter on an 11-0 run to lead 20-17, and the game was a tooth-and-claw battle the rest of the way.
Guard Zion Nicholson led the winners with 10 of her team-high 14 points in the second half.
Star forward Denira Dundas, who brought next-level vision on a number of occasions with excellent passes into the paint, added nine points while Taya Henrickson scored all six of her points in the second quarter,
A Mountain team making the transition to the senior varsity level with a largely Grade 11 team, one which last year excelled at the B.C. junior championships, was led by the 14 points of compact guard Katrina Fang.
Fellow guard Clara Shin added 11 points in the low-scoring affair while forward Leah Robinson added nine more.
The 6-foot-1 Dundas, a clear U SPORTS talent, played the pass-score pivot role to good effect, and Koo appreciated the presence she brought to the roster.
“That’s the thing with her,” he said. “You know, she settles us quite often. She keeps the energy up because she knows what it takes to be at that level. But, the biggest thing right now is that we play as a team. And I think that’s one thing that she likes to foster.”
The Tigers supplemented their roster with call-ups from its JV program giving them a deeper and more dangerous rotation throughout.
Tupper now advances to Thursday’s quarterfinal round where it will face the winner of today’s 3 p.m. game between Fernie and Earl Marriott.
BOTTOM HALF DRAW
QUAD C
CENTENNIAL 46 MT. BAKER 38
By IAN FRENCH (Special for Varsity Letters)
LANGLEY — It’s not just understandable, it’s expected that a duel between a bear and a mythical centaur would lead to an explosive, physical battle, and that’s exactly how this one turned out between the Centennial Centaurs and the Mount Baker Wild at the Langley Event Centre on Wednesday.
In opening-round action of the Tsumura Basketball Invitational’s Select 16 bracket, saying these two teams fought hard feels like an understatement. All game, no matter who had the ball, they had a defender on them ready to pounce. No space was given, only earned. The Wild came out strong, taking a double-digit lead early. But as the saying goes: “it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish”, and the Centaurs took that to heart, pulling off a 46-38 comeback victory.
“We weren’t really on in the first half, but we managed to find a way to stay close,” said Centennial head coach Darcy Grant. “We missed shots but played good defence, and we were able to do the little things to keep us in the game.”
Physicality took centre stage throughout the opening frame, leading to both sides picking up plenty of fouls and slowing the game down in the process. This led to the final play of the first, where the Wild looked to put an exclamation point on their early advantage. Starting from their own baseline with only a few seconds remaining, the ball quickly made its way up the court and through multiple players before finding a spot down low and finishing to beat the buzzer, extending the lead to nine (15-6) in favour of Mount Baker.
The war in the paint continued in the second, with both teams creating second chances from offensive rebounds, only for the opposition to stifle them on the other end of the court. The scoring woes continued as tough defence would prevail. The majority of possessions ended in a block or steal, regardless of the opposition. Then, things started to click for the Centaurs. They went on an 8-0 run to bring the deficit to three in the final minutes before the break. New life. But the Wild weren’t going to roll over. They responded with six straight of their own to reestablish a nine-point lead (25-16) and regain momentum ahead of the second half.
The clash carried over into the third, especially for the Wild, playing as if they were the ones trailing. Yet, the Centaurs were having none of it, shutting down their offensive opportunities in a similar fashion to the first half, while also slowly chipping away at the lead to make it a two-point game. A few possessions later, Centaurs forward Kendra Perry fought for positioning in the paint and was found quickly by Amalie Griffiths, who dished out the game-tying assist, all evened up at 27 apiece. Shortly after, Eden Kolins followed suit with a bucket of her own to hand her squad their first lead since opening tipoff. Mount Baker didn’t take too kindly to this run, going on one of their own to close out the third tied at 32-32, teeing up a dramatic finish.
As the final buzzer neared, the physicality intensified. After countless steals, blocks and fouls, the buckets started to flow around the midway point of the fourth. Amidst the game-long fight, Centaurs’ Perry was clearly trying to fend off pain but still established a dominant presence in the paint down the stretch, which directly contributed to a 10-2 run in the final minutes. The Centaurs would keep the Wild at bay before eventually solidifying a 46-38 win.
Centennial’s Amalie Griffiths and Eden Kolins each tallied 13 points, while Kendra Perry chipped in with eight. While on Mount Baker’s side, Sarah Johnson posted a team-high 11 points with Dyllan Beal adding eight as well.
“The second half, it was great. We just kind of bonded and came out together as a team, and we were able to gut it out,” reflected Centaur head coach Grant. “I know that if tomorrow we want a similar result, we have to be sharper, and we have to be better, and we’re up for the challenge.”
The victory sends Centennial into a 4:30 p.m. quarterfinal Thursday against the Brookswood vs. Terry Fox winner.
BROOKSWOOD 34 TERRY FOX 33
By GARY AHUJA
(Special for Varstiy Letters)
LANGLEY — A dominant third quarter and a pair of clutch late-game layups from Sam Pogue lifted the Brookswood Bobcats to a tight 34–33 victory over the Terry Fox Ravens.
With just seven practices and three early-season games (going 1–2) under their belts, the Bobcats are still finding their footing. But there have already been encouraging signs. One of them came on the defensive end, where a recently installed zone – added only a few practices ago – proved highly effective.
“They played really, really good defence,” said Brookswood coach Anthony Luyken, who took over the program this season. “They’re a taller team, and the fact we were able to keep them outside and limit their shots, I was really pleased.”
Trailing by a point at halftime, the Bobcats completely shut the door in the third quarter, blanking the Ravens to take a 27–21 lead into the fourth. Brookswood was up 30–25 with under three minutes remaining before Terry Fox surged ahead with a 6–0 run. Pogue responded, scoring twice off the glass, including the go-ahead basket with 35.8 seconds left. The Ravens were unable to get a shot off on their final possession.
“Even when we were up five, they’re young kids and don’t always understand clock control,” Luyken said. “Thirty seconds is a long time to hold the ball. They get itchy and want to shoot. But I’m glad we were able to pull it off in the end.”
QUAD D
NOTRE DAME 61 PACIFIC CHRISTIAN 45
By IAN FRENCH
(Special for Varstiy Letters)
LANGLEY — Sometimes in sports, looking at the scoreboard doesn’t tell the full story of how two teams battled. For the Pacific Christian Pacers and the Notre Dame Jugglers, this is just one of those times. For most of the night, the game swung like a pendulum, but when it mattered most, Vancouver’s Jugglers steadied the motion and closed out with force, running away with it in the fourth to earn a 61-45 win over the Victoria’s Pacers.
“I liked our second half, we picked it up and started to execute the offence more and do what we know,” reflected Notre Dame head coach Tracy Clarke. “And they adjusted defensively.”
Both teams came out sprinting. The Pacers won the tip immediately and put up two points, only for Notre Dame to respond with back-to-back buckets less than a minute later — an early indication that this one would be more of a tug-of-war than a one-sided finish. The first major spark arrived on the defensive end: Pacers forward Ava Burnside opened her night with an emphatic block to ignite her squad and set up an opportunity in transition.
From there, it became the Kealayna Tupas-Singh show for Pacific Christian. The senior year guard danced around defenders and knocked down a series of jumpers in just the opening minutes — and it didn’t stop there. In the dying minutes of the first, Tupas-Singh had the ball near the half, but pressure from the Jugglers knocked it loose and sent it back into the Pacers’ end with seconds dwindling on the shot clock, but Tupas-Singh looked in clear control. She sprinted past a screen to find space for a deep two and drilled it in motion. By the end of the frame, she racked up 10 of her team’s 13 first-quarter points, guiding the Pacers to a narrow 13-12 lead after one.
Defensive pressure was cranked up a notch by both sides in the second quarter, but the Jugglers could only hope to contain Tupas-Singh — and when they did, she managed to find open teammates for clean looks. Despite her dominance, the Jugglers never let the game tilt too far, consistently keeping the game within one possession. With five minutes left in the half, both sides traded blows for a handful of lead changes, until Notre Dame forced a turnover and Jugglers’ junior guard Selena Quilatan knocked down a deep two to hand her side a 26-23 advantage heading into the break.
Notre Dame began the third the same way they finished the second, with a Quilatan bucket — this time, it came from beyond the arc. Coach Clarke clearly ignited her team at the half, as what followed was pristine ball movement, sound defence, and double-teams being sent to cover Tupas-Singh. This trifecta resulted in an 11-2 run over the next three minutes. However, another statement block from Pacers’ Burnside energized her squad once again. The Pacers regained their clamps, which led to fast break points and even a buzzer-beating bucket that cut into the Juggler’s lead, ending the frame trailing 43-35.
Coming into the final frame, the Jugglers quickly went to work. Quilatan opened up with a nice pass-fake while driving before laying in the hoop. But even as the lead seemed to rise out of reach, the Pacers responded with a pair of threes on back-to-back possessions to make it a six-point game. However, as the pendulum swings, so does the score once more. The Jugglers pieced together six straight to reestablish their 12-point lead and didn’t look back, closing this one out with a 61-45 win over the Pacific Christian Pacers.
“It’s been kind of an interesting year,” laughed head coach Clarke on learning lessons from this game. “Just not pacing ourselves when we feel like we want to pace ourselves. We can’t take breaks, we have to go full steam the whole time.”
Selena Quilatan ended the day with a game-high 25 points, while Lylah Mach contributed with 16 points of her own. Kealayna Tupas-Singh finished with a team-high 24 points for Pacific Christian.
The Jugglers will now face Pitt Meadows in a 7:45 p.m. quarterfinal clash Thursday.
PITT MEADOWS 52 PACIFIC ACADEMY 49
By IAN FRENCH (Special for Varsity Letters)
LANGLEY — The second game to open the Women’s Select 16 of the Tsumura Basketball Invitational felt like a late-round playoff bout. The 3A Pitt Meadows Marauders squared off against the underdog, 2A Pacific Academy Breakers, and it dramatically came down to the wire.
Shortly after the opening tipoff, the Marauders’ game plan appeared fairly straightforward: play through the scorching hot Jocelyn Boyes. On the other side of the coin, Pacific Academy came out as a well-oiled machine with everybody getting touches due to quick ball movement. Out of these two game plans, the latter controlled the majority of the first half. The Breakers held an early lead and held it deep into the third quarter. It seemed as though Pacific Academy could do no wrong. They were all over both ends of the boards, while creating and knocking down timely opportunities on the other end.
Boyes fought diligently to keep her team afloat, not letting the Breakers run away with anything. Coming out of halftime, Pacific Academy clearly made changes to its game plan. Boyce was smothered in the third, but that didn’t deter her in the fourth. She battled for space and put the team on her back in the dying minutes, sealing a narrow 52-49 win.
“[The Breakers] played really hard. They were out battling us to a lot of loose balls so there were some basic principles of basketball that needed to be reinforced,” reflected Pitt Meadows head coach Jason Boyes. “Then offensively, we’ve got Jocelyn.”
The opening frame felt less like basketball and more like watching a tennis match, the way heads kept turning back and forth. Both sides sprinted out of the gates — reminiscent of a Steve Nash offence — efficiently trading baskets with no hesitation.
The frenzied pace wasn’t out of panic; it was controlled. Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. The Breakers were a dominant force in transition but continuously managed to slow the game down while on offence. They started fast with a corner three, but just a few moments later, the Marauders responded with a three of their own, foreshadowing how the remainder of the game would play out.
Pitt Meadows continued to match Pacific Academy’s intensity through their engine, Jocelyn Boyes, who never wavered. It didn’t stop at just knocking down shots for the remainder of the game, but she continuously made the right play and set up her teammates for open looks in key moments.
Coming out of halftime, Pacific Academy managed to contain Boyes’ opportunities. But that flipped in the fourth as the senior guard took over down the stretch. The game was tied at 48 apiece with just over a minute to go. Boyes brought the ball up the court,
drove wide left towards the baseline, before swiftly switching direction towards the hooP and dropping in the bucket for a two-point lead. She would follow up by knocking down two free throws to extend her side’s lead to three.
Pacific Academy just needed a deep ball to tie with 10 seconds remaining, plenty of time for a good look. Pitt Meadows thought otherwise. They collectively put on the clamps, forcing Pacific Academy to have nothing more than a deep contested three-
pointer to beat the buzzer. This is where Boyes put an exclamation point on the win, seemingly coming out of nowhere to rise up and swat away the opportunity to seal the win.
Boyes finished with a game-high 27 points for Pitt Meadows, while Amelie Baril and Eden Hansen led the offensive charge for Pacific Academy, finishing with 17 and 14 points respectively.
“We just lost in the final at Vancouver Island on Saturday, and we made some mistakes in the last possession. Then we had a chance to tie it at the buzzer, and we missed but that’s learning, right? And we’re here now. Hopefully, we’ll stitch this all together once we get to provincials and see what happens,” said head coach Boyes.
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