The College Heights Cougars’ dreams of winning a medal at the triple-A girls high school basketball championship ended Thursday in Langley with a 93-49 loss to the R.A. McMath Wildcats.
It was the second-straight win for the Richmond-based Wildcats over a Prince George opponent as they to 2-0 to advance to the quarterfinal round on Friday.
“The girls came out a bit shell-shocked at the start, playing a team like that,” said Cougars head coach Wade Loukes, whose team trailed 27-9 after one quarter and 55-21 at the half. “We tried to focus on their big girls and they were hitting shots from all over the place so we were behind from the first quarter on.
“But I’m very proud of the girls. I told them not to hand their heads, they never quit. The top four teams here are at different level. We tried to play our game and they kept throwing right back at us.”
Rachel Loukes shot a team-high 20 points to lead College Heights, while Sophia Fuller had a seven-point game. Marina Radoucaj, a junior national team member, sank a game-high 30 points for the Wildcats, who will play the winner of Thursday’s noon Burnaby Central-Valleyview playoff.
R.A. McMath came in ranked fourth in the 16-team tournament and the Wildcats annihilated the Duchess Park Condors 105-30 on Wednesday. Fifth-ranked College Heights opened with an 83-50 win over the John Oliver Jokers. In that game, Rachel Loukes collected 37 points.
“We’d seen tape on them early in the season and I knew it was going to be a tough game,” said Wade Loukes. “We’ve got hit some shots and we just didn’t under their pressure.
“It just shows that it really would have helped us to get to some more tournaments but (Wednesday’s) win was good and this was a good learning experience.”
The Cougars will play Valleyview Friday at 1:15 p.m. and will have to win that game and a 10 a.m. Saturday playoff to finish fifth.
Valleyview defeated Duchess Park 63-46 Thursday morning. The Condors were down by just one point, trailing 40-39 after three quarters, when the Jokers went on a 15-0 run to take control .
Mataya Lyons and Farah Mahmoud each picked up eight points to lead Duchess Park.
The Condors will meet Carihi of Campbell River Friday at 10:15 a.m.. The best Duchess Park can finish is 13th.
Meanwhile, in the double-A girls championship, also being played in Langley, the Shas Ti Kelly Road Grizzlies fell to 0-2 after a 59-39 loss Thursday morning to Abbotsford Traditional.
Ashleen Dhillon led Abbotsford with a 22-point effort. Breanna Skelly and Airi Rustad collected 12 and 11 points respectively for the Grizzlies.
Shas Ti Kelly, ranked 16th, opened with a 94-12 loss to top-ranked Langley Christian. The Grizzlies will be back on the court Friday at 8:30 a.m. to face A.R. McNeill of Richmond. They’ll need back-to-back wins the next two days to finish 13th.
At the single-A girls championship in Kelowna, the North Central zone-champion Northside Christian Northstars of Vanderhoof will take on No. 2 Unity Christian Flames tonight at 7 p.m. in quarterfinal playoff.
The tenth-seeded Northstars started Wednesday with a 55-46 win over Kings Christian Thunder of Salmon Arm. Sarah-Faith McGill led the Northstars’ attack with 22 points, backed by a 17-point game from Clara Yoder.
The 16th-seeded Fort St. James Falcons lost 48-28 Thursday afternoon to the Nanaimo Christian Trail Blazers in their second game at the 16-team tournament. Fort St. James lost 71-26 on Wednesday to top-ranked Credo Christian of Langley.
At the junior A girls provincial championship Langley, the 20th-seeded Duchess Park Condors dropped to 0-2 at the 32-team tournament when they lost 59-34 to No. 21 Abbotsford Traditional Thursday afternoon.
The Condors are back on the court Friday to play Heritage Woods at 8:30 a.m.
The Condors dropped a 63-31 decision Wednesday to the No. 13 Holy Cross Crusaders of Surrey. Maggie Malfair collected 12 points for Duchess Park.
The junior A boys provincial championship wrapped up Tuesday in Langley and the top-seeded Vancouver College Fighting Irish lived up to their top billing, defeating Burnaby South 61-45 in Tuesday’s final.
The Prince George Polars and Duchess Park Condors each finished with 1-4 records. The Polars beat Salmo 62-55 on Tuesday, while the Condors lost their final game 63-37 to Tweedmuir of Surrey.
PGSS was picked as the most sportsmanlike team at the 32-team tournament.
The senior boys championships start Wednesday in Langley. Prince George will be represented by the Duchess Park Condors (triple-A) and the Cedars Christian Eagles (single-A). The Valley Vikes of Vanderhoof will carry the North Central zone flag at the double-A boys championship.
