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!
— Howard Tsumura
TOP HALF DRAW
QUAD A
ARGYLE 80 JOHNSTON HEIGHTS 57
By HOWARD TSUMURA
LANGLEY — The Argyle Pipers have so much talent throughout the Grade 11-12 spectrum within its senior girls basketball program, and thus when a team dropped out of the Select 16 pool earlier this fall, head coach Anthony Beyrouti was quick to offer up a second team from his vast roster.
And that’s why if you peruse the pages of the TBI 2025 official tournament program, you’ll notice an Argyle team in both the premier Super 16 bracket (Argyle Green) as well as the ultra-competitive Select 16 bracket (Argyle Gold).
In theory, it’s great to get your entire senior varsity program engaged with meaninful minutes available for everyone.
And to Argyle Green, full credit after having to battle against a talented, hard-working and fast-rising Johnston Heights Eagles of Surrey.
“We had 10 seniors this year, and the Grade 11s won the Grade 9 Championship two seasons ago, so we had a lot of talent coming up from both directions,” Beyrouti explained after Argyle Green came through with an 80-57 win over the Eagles. “It allows for a lot of depth. And the kids put in a ton of time, so it’s necessary to give them an opportunity to compete. And we’ve got a really dedicated coaching staff, so it’s nice to watch.”
Guard Sadie Danks and forward Isabella Miljkovic each scored a co-team high 16 points for the winners, while guard Cassidy Nugent added 15 and forward Sophie Nicholson 10 points.
Youthful Johnston Heights got a game-high 17 points from talented 6-foot-1 Grade 10 guard Puneet Deol. Fellow Grade 10 6-foot-2 forward Sofia Ogamba added 14 more while another Grade 10, guard Fajr Hanjra, added 11.
The Eagles battled hard throughout, especially in the first half, and Beyrouti appreciated their effort in the way that it brought out the best in his team.
“We want to be in shape,” he said. “We want to show off our conditioning. We’ve been lifting a lot as a team, getting stronger. Johnston Heights is a very good young team. They’re very talented and they work hard and they compete. And so it’s a good challenge for us in round one. We’ve done everything we can to make our schedule the hardest in the province this year. And this was another opportunity for us to show that we’re ready to go and compete right from the get-go and really challenge ourselves.”
Argyle advances to face the winner of tonight’s 6:15 p.m. contest between SMUS and Charles Best in Thursday’s 6:15 p.m. quarterfinal.
DR. CHARLES BEST 55 ST. MICHAELS UNIVERSITY SCHOOL 41
By HOWARD TSUMURA
LANGLEY — No matter how early in the season it is, holding the opposition to an average of 10 points per quarter is nothing to sneeze at.
In fact, for Dr. Charles Best Blue Demons head coach Jim Day, it’s a sign that his team is beginning to understand, from a collective standpoint, just whom they are striving to become.
“We’re trying to build an identity of how we want to play and the program that we want to be and so it’s just working on that,” Day remarked after the No. 7 Quad-A Blue Devils of Coquitlam limited the No. 6-ranked Triple-A Blue Jags of Victoria to just eight points in the fourth quarter en route to a 55-41 win in a TBI Super 16 opening round contest.
It’s a formula for a team that is not senior laden, does not possess great height, but has a core of skilled players who need to be put in their best place to get to the provincials and make a statement beyond the opening round.
Against SMUS, Best had no answer for the Blue Jags’ powerful 6-foot-3 centre Mikaela Dube, who scored a game-high 23 points.
Yet the defending B.C. Double-A champs, in their move to Triple-A this season, were unable to get enough secondary scoring to challenge for the win.
“We have four core principles with our Best team, and it’s belief, energy, selflessness, toughness,” said Day. “So we want to be a tough, physical, defensive team, and then we want to play with a lot of energy. We want to believe in our system, and we’ve got to execute an offence. I think sometimes for us, our struggle is we generate so much out of our defence or transition. We got to be better in the half court. So that’s a lot of work we’ve got to do.”
No one is even remotely near their ceiling in the second week of December, and to Best’s credit, a win like Wednesday’s goes a long way towards Day’s words of “…we want to believe in our system.”
Bianka Mazan, a 5-foot-9 Grade 11 guards led the winners with 14 points. Another Grade 11 guard, Natalie Piasentin, added 11 more. The 5-foot-10 Grade 10 forward Ashreya Sanghera-Gulamhussein scored all nine of her points in the first half as Best took a 47-34 lead into the break.
The tough part?
Believing in that system even as the stakes get higher.
On Thursday, in a 6:15 p.m. quarterfinal, the Blue Devils get Quad-A No. 3 Argyle of North Vancouver.
The Pipers have athleticism, grit and lots of size, meaning Best’s four cornerstone principles will all be held to the fire.
“So tomorrow night, it’s, hey, you know, if we don’t block out, we’re going to get blown out,” acknowledged Day. “If we don’t defend in the full court and maybe create some turnovers and give their guards some trouble, then it’s going to be a tough night for us.”
It’s what December basketball is all about.
QUAD B
LANGLEY CHRISTIAN 77 DUCHESS PARK 53
By HOWARD TSUMURA
LANGLEY — The No. 3- and No. 4-ranked teams in the most recent B.C. senior girls Triple-A rankings meeting in the first round of the Tsumura Basketball Invitational’s Super 16 round?
The actual B.C. championship Final Four isn’t until late February, and perhaps by that time the Langley Christian Lightning and Prince George’s Duchess Park Condors will meet again… with a berth in the B.C. championship final on the line?
Whatever winds up happening down the road, it’s obvious that TBI’s Super 16 round one is not for the faint of heart. It’s big game after big game after big game, and tomorrow that’s also going to be happening on the consolation side of the draw.
The No. 3 Lightning was a 77-55 win over the No. 4 Condors, and while there was of course elation from the winning side, there was something bigger that came out of simply facing each other for respective head coaches Daneille Gardner and Reid Roberts.
“I think it’s awesome because, you know, we’re new to the tier this year,” said Gardner, whose LCS squad is making the move up from Double-A. “So for us to see…. it’s a whole different game this year for us in terms of who our competitors are. And so it’s great to see people early.”
The Lightning used a 7-0 run to end the first quarter in front 24-15, led 46-38 after three quarters, then doubled down on defence in the final frame, holding the Condors to just a pair of buckets from the field.
Zoe Bradshaw led a balanced LCS attack from the point guard position with a game-high 16 points. Shot-blocking forward Gaby Vis with 12 points, Payton Brunoro with 11 and Georgia Van Der Waarde with 10 also broke double figures for the winners.
Anja Sales and Devyn Bjorn each scored 10 points in the loss for Duchess Park.
Afterwards, Condors’ head coach Roberts was not letting the loss get in the way of the four competitive games his team is going to get over the course of the tournament.
“I’m really happy we’re in this (Super 16) bracket,” said Roberts, whose team last year put together a dominant run in the Select 16 bracket. “It doesn’t matter our win-loss record in this. We need games like that because we can compete with that team. Yeah, I know. The score didn’t look like it, but at this point in the season it’s early. Anything can happen. So we need four competitive games because we don’t get that up in Prince George right now.”
As Langley Christian moves up to Triple-A, Gardner was asked what the defining characteristic of her team this season will likely be.
“I think the depth that we have in positions, like this is probably the deepest we’ve had,” said Gardner whose program has punched well above its former Double-A tier when it comes to sending grads to U SPORTS programs. “We went 12 deep tonight, they like being around each other. You know, they’re just a family.”
Roberts had his own thoughts about LCS’ potential.
“Oh, man, they were relentless,” he said. “Like who do you key on? Well… all of them. They all run. They rebound. They’re fast. They’re aggressive. Like, that’s a great team. I would say they’re potentially the number one. They’ll be up there for sure.”
HOLY CROSS 69 OKANAGAN MISSION 39
By HOWARD TSUMURA
LANGLEY — Isla Iannuzzi never savoured it, yet she carried around the taste of defeat around all spring, summer and fall.
It was her way of rememebring what it felt like for her Holy Cross Crusaders to to lose 62-54 in the B.C. Double-A championship game final to Victoria’s SMUS Blue Jags last season.
It’s also, as she proved Wednesday in the opening round of the TBI’s Super 16 bracket, her way of making sure that feeling won’t come again when the provincials reconvene in the same Langley Events Centre complete place she stood Wednesday afternoon.
“Personally, I feel like we all felt the loss of last year right after it happened,” said Iannuzzi, who Wednesday scored a co-team high 16 points to help lead Double-A No. 1 Holy Cross to a 69-39 win over Kelowna’s Quad-A No. 10 Okanagan Mission Huskies.
“All summer, even with my club team, I always carried that, and it was always about being better than the day before. I think that’s something both I and the team have really focussed on.”
Starting five seniors as part of a deep rotation of Class of 2026 players, the Crusaders were relentless with Iannuzzi hitting five triples, and defending B.C. Defensive Player of the Year Solene Jackson affecting play at both ends with her usual fliar while also adding 19 points in the process.
Mia Guerrero added 13 more in the win. Shae Sandhu had nine for the Huskies while Maya-Lynn Ramsay had eight and Jessie Umeris six.
Remind Iannuzzi that SMUS lost in two B.C. championship finals before breaking through last season, and she speaks for both herslef and the rest of her fellow seniors who know this is their last chance to grab all the spoils.
“We have to win this,” she said of the BC’s. “It’s like our role… our destiny almost is to win this.”
As one of the Super 16’s top four seeds, the TBI title is also well within their grasp. The Crusaders road continues at 3 p.m. Wednesday when they face the Langley Christian Lightning in the quarterfinals.
“Such a great team,” said OKM head coach Meghan Faust of the Crusaders. “Just great defensively and their movement on offence, just so smooth. They’ve obviously played together for a while and I am excited to see what they can do.”
And about the Huskies?
The former TBI Super 16 winner, currently battling a number of injuries, is one of the youngest in the bracket with nine grade 11s, a Grade 10 and senior leader Sandhu.
Coming off of a start in which OKM fell behind 23-3 at the end of the first quarter, the Huskies managed to get their game back the rest of the way.
“Early days in the season, so I’m not feeling any kind of way other than excited for the potential,” said Faust, who is injecting encouragement into every offensive possession and defensive stand.
“I try really hard to make sure that I’m staying positive, find the small wins,” said Faust. “We’re going to win the bench energy. We’re going to celebrate this lay-up. We got a stop here… just continue to build off of that.”
BOTTOM HALF DRAW
QUAD C
VERNON 61 SEMIAHMOO 52
By HOWARD TSUMURA
LANGLEY — David Tetrault knows his basketball team doesn’t walk into the gym striking fear in the hearts of their opposition.
“Because when you look at us in, we look like a junior girls team because we’re tiny,” Tetrault said, well aware that first impressions don’t always hold true. “We don’t have a post player. We do not own a post player. So it’s like, you know, we got to do it as a team. It has to all be team.”
In the end, it was.
The Triple-A No. 2-ranked Vernon Panthers put on a showcase of absolute old-school team defence for the full 40 minutes, topping the Quad-A No. 10 Semiahmoo Thunderbirds of Surrey 61-52 in a game they led by as many as 23 points (52-29) late in the the third quarter.
How small are the Panthers — who have just three seniors on their roster — when it comes to physical stature?
Eight of their nine players are 5-foot-8 or shorter, and 5-foot-11 Adia Janke is the team’s lone player with true height.
But how big are they when it comes to leading with your hearts on defence?
“We only have one way to play, and that is that we’ve got to play defence everywhere,” began Tetrault. “We can’t let people walk the ball up the floor. We work on attrition.”
Not every team, it should be pointed out, is capable of being coached that way.
But as the coach adds: “They came to me with that attitude, that they are willing to play defence all the time. And so that is one impressive way to play. And that’s on them. That’s all on them. I give all the credit to them.”
Of course heading into the game the big question for Vernon was how would they slow Semiahmoo’s fluid, 5-foot-10 Grade 11 guard Jaida Claypool?
“We were really worried about their transition, but my kids just played so well,” said Tetrault. “I have to recognize two of my kids. Caelyn Fitzpatrick and Isla Jolly just did such a great job on No. 5 (Claypool). I know she’s a very, very good player. And both of them are little kids They’re not very big. But they are so tough. You see how hard they work. It’s pretty impressive stuff defensively, right?”
As a testamanent to Claypool, she still scored 28 points.
On Wednesday, Ashely Yuson’s triple with 3:34 left in the third quarter pushed the Panthers lead to 20 (44-34) for the first time on the night, and from there, they hunkered down for the battle they knew was coming, giving up the final six points of the contest but holding on for one of the most impressive wins in the Super 16 draw today.
Of course, the Panthers are starting to make their team toughness and relentless defence a true part of their DNA.
Last week, Vernon hosted its own invitational and advanced to the championship final Saturday where it was out-gritted by last season’s Alberta Triple-A champions from Leduc, losing by a single point.
“It was a fist fight…” Tetrault said. “It was a battle. And it was awesome because it certainly prepared us for today. It was nasty tough. “
Janke led the Panthers on Wednesday with 18 points, while guard Chloe Collins added 13 and guard Charlotte Routley 11. Savanna Wong scored 13 more for the Thunderbirds.
Vernon plays Quad-A No. 2 Riverside in a 4:30 p.m. quarterfinal Thursday, a game which looks like even more of a size mismatch.
RIVERSIDE 62 MARK ISFELD 51
By HOWARD TSUMURA
LANGLEY — If you think it’s been an awfully long time since PoCo’s Riverside Rapids started a season with a team as young as the 2025-26 edition, well you’re right.
Look at the roster which took to the floor Wednesday for the opening round of TBI’s Super 16 bracket here at the Langley Events Centre: Four Grade 9’s, five Grade 10’s, five Grade 11’s and seniors Natalie McCutcheon and Kaitlin Vergara.
All of which gave Rapids head coach Paul Langford, in the aftermath of a hard-earned 62-51 win over Courtenay’s Mark Isfeld Ice to say: “I think we can beat any team in the province, but I think we can lose to any team in the province, too.”
Last weekend, the Quad-A No. 2 Rapids beat the current No. 3 Argyle Pipers in the semifinals of the Victoria Invitational but then lost by a point in the championship final to No. 1 Seaquam.
The week before that, Riverside won The Big Ticket championship by beating Argyle in the title game.
Maybe not the best example since that trio is considered by most to be the three best top-tiered teams in the province.
And while the Rapids, largely comprised of last year’s B.C. junior championships team, are certainly winning their fair share of games, it’s teams like Mark Isfeld, which, on a given day might be the kind of team able to pull an upset.
And what kind of team is that?
Tough, physically relentless and hard working.
The head coach later said as much.
“They work hard,” Langford said of the Triple-A No. 5 Ice, whom Riverside beat by a much more comfortable margin last week in Victoria. “They come back. We weren’t at our best, but they probably weren’t at their best either. They’re scrappy, man. I love them. They’re great. I love how hard they work. They outworked us, and we are lucky. We dodged a bullet. They’re one of the top teams in the 3A.”
All that said, teams as young as the Rapids — they start among their first five a 6-foot Grade 9 forward named Ari Brown and a pair of Grade 10’s in guard Francesca Salonga and 6-foot forward Cleo Beck — need more than two weeks to build chemistry and learn about the physicality that can come from facing veteran teams with the work ethic Langford so clearly noted in the Ice.
So just which Riverside team does the current team most resemble as it pertains to youth?
Langford points to the 2004-05 team which did not have a senior and featured the likes of a Grade 8 Kristina Collins and a Grade 9 Stephanie Carkner, two of the greatest Riverside players in program history.
“Every group is different, and I would say this group is not as basketball-savvy as that past team,” said Langford. “But they are very, very good athletes.”
Langford points out that the very next year, the 2005-06 Riverside team got to the B.C.’s, something that, based on their early-seaosn results and current ranking, the current team is certainly capable of accomplishing this season.
Beck led Riverside on Wednesday with a game-high 17 points, Salonga added 16, Brown 13 and 6-foot Grade 11 forward Henna Virk added 11.
Mark Isfeld got 10 points apiece from Rylan Boccabella and Lillian Bourget, while Phoebe Cunningham and Jayla Robinson scored eight points apiece.
QUAD D
G.W. GRAHAM 63 SA-HALI 58
By HOWARD TSUMURA
VarsityLetters.ca
LANGLEY — Every team brings its battle scars to the Langley Events Centre.
In the case of Chilliwack’s GW Graham Grizzlies, those scars are still fresh, enough so that when it comes time to thinking about what it takes to win a provincial championship later this season, head coach Ashley Hayes knows it’s a point sore enough to demand her team’s full attention.
“We have a chip on our shoulder,” Hayes said Wednesday night after her Quad-A No. 4-ranked Grizzlies put the memory a five-point fourth quarter behind them with a 25-point fourth quarter en route to a 63-58 win over Kamloops’ Triple-A No. 1-ranked Sa-Hali Sabres in the last of eight TBI Super 16 opening round games.
“We have lost in the last two B.C. junior finals, so over those past two seasons every girl on our team has lost in the provincial final, and five of them have lost in two provincial finals.”
It’s a chip that which carries no ill intent towards any of their opponents… just a fire that burns inside of them to maximize their championship window at the senior varsity level.
Two years ago, the Grizzlies lost in the B.C. junior final to the seam team they will meet in Thursday’s 7:45 p.m. quarterfinal, the current Quad-A No. 1-ranked Seaquam Seahawks.
Last season they lost to the current Quad-A No. 2 Riverside Rapids of Port Coquitlam.
On Wednesday, nothing the Grizzlies gained came easy.
In fact if you lined up G.W. Graham’s main rotation against Sa-Hali’s, the team’s are almost mirror-like, as the two coaches agreed, in both their make-up and style.
“Pace, size, defensive grit and just getting after it,” GW’s Hayes said.
Added Sa-Hali’s head coach Jody Vosper: “They’ve got some length and athleticism and some good guard play. And they’re tough team.”
Down the fourth-quarter stretch drive the games was tied at 48, 54 and 56, but the Grizzlies put together a near-game-closing 9-0 run that made the difference
“I think Holly-Ray (Myrden) was really clutch down the end,” said Hayes of her 5-foot-9 Grade 11 guard, who not only managed some key steals, but also went 6-for-6 from the free throw line and finished with 17 points. “That really pulled us ahead.
“But Katie (Schmitke), Macie (Svehla), everybody stepped up. We had a couple come straight off the bench and hit threes in the corner. Everybody contributed.”
Schmitke, a 5-foot-9 Grade 11 guard scored all of her team-high 18 points over the final three quarters. Svehla, meantime, scored all of her 10 points in the third quarter.
The Sabres miss their graduated 5-foot-10 guard Nevena Nogic, but were fortunate enough to get a rare transfer student into the program when Gwen Storry, a 6-footer from Merritt joined the team.
On Wednesday she poured home a game-high 32 points, including 13 in the fourth quarter.
A tough break for Sa-Hali?
They lost their leading scorer and rebounder in the early moments of the game when 5-foot-5 Grade 11 guard Iyin Aina was forced to leave due to an injury.
“Without her, I was super proud of how we responded and battled hard and they’re a good team and we gave them a really good game and down the stretch,” summed Vosper. “We had a few turnovers that they capitalized on and that probably was the difference.”
SEAQUAM 100 ST. THOMAS MORE 54
By HOWARD TSUMURA
If the Seaquam Seahawks have anything you’d consider as an intangible quality, it would be their pluck.
Despite the fact they are beginning defence of their status as two-time B.C. Quad-A champs, the reality is that the North Delta squad suffered heavy graduation totals from a season ago with such noted players Neelum Sidhu, Sydney Roufosse, Mackenzie Henderson and Priya Toor all no longer a part of the program.
Add to it the fact that reigning provincial MVP Camryn Tait, the multi-skilled 6-foot-1 forward, has just now returned from a broken foot suffered in the spring, and you begin to understand how finding the same level of cohesion, chemistry and role-defining will be, for them, an ongoing process over the early days of the campaign.
Nonethless, the Seahawks recovered from a game-opening 13-2 deficit against the spirited and lightning-quick, Double-A No. 2-ranked St. Thomas More Knights to post a convincing 100-54 win in the opening game of Wednesday’s eight-game TBI Super 16 bracket here at the Langley Event Centre.
“We have a very different roster this year, so right now it’s just about getting used to playing with each other,” admitted Seahawks’ head coach Lucky Toor, whose newly-installed Quad-A No. 1-ranked team was nonetheless coming off a one-point win over No. 2 Riverside of PoCo in the finals of the Victoria Invitational on Saturday.
“We’ve got to play a little bit of a different way than we were used to before,” added Toor. “We don’t have the depth that we had the last couple of years. So having said that, we’re just finding a way to gel together. And this morning, I mean, we looked like an 8:30 a.m. team for that first quarter. It took us a moment to wake up.”
The Knights certainly were wide-awake at the opening tip.
Easily one of the smallest teams in the B.C. senior girls ranks, they brought terrific energy led by the quartet of Demicah Arnaldo (7 points), Mia Beliveau (12), Mackenzie Pagtakhan (11) and Kyla Limon (six).
“They play so hard, and we expected nothing less than that,” Toor said of STM. “I mean, their guard rotation there? They are unbelievable. I know them personally. I’ve been around them for a long time. And you know, you’re not going to outcompete them.”
Still, Seaquam’s offensive weapons remain immense.
Although Tait is still rounding into form after her extended absence due to injury, senior guard Syra Toor was as dialled in as you could be, draining seven triples and finishing with 27 points.
Fellow senior guard Callie Brost added 20, hitting four triples in the process.
Seniors Gurleen Bal and Diya Gill each added 10 while Grade 11 starter Pauline Wanjura added six points.
“It’s early, so being able to see what we can bring to the table that in terms of intangibles, I think is going to be more important than anything we need to do to put the ball in the hoop,” said St. Thomas More head coach Cassie Lauang. “I think for us defence is going to be important. And so if we can’t have the mentality we need to have for 40 minutes, then when size becomes an issue, that’s going to be the neutralizer for us. I think we lacked in speed today. We lacked a little in our dynamic steps, but at the end of the day, it’s early, and I think this is a learning opportunity for everybody. So we’re excited.”
Argyle moves on to face the winner of today’s 6:15 p.m. opener between Victoria’s SMUS Blue Jags and Coquitlam’s Dr. Charles Best Blue Devils.
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