North Delta’s Seaquam repeats as Quad A titleholders to cap off championship Saturday that was played in LEC arena rather than usual centre court gym
Coach Lucky Toor’s most passionate response to the media after his Seaquam Seahawks won their second straight Quad A girls basketball provincial championship was about where they played rather than how they played.
The organizers for the championship games Saturday moved the four senior girls finals to the Langley Events Centre’s arena (capacity: 6,000) from the centre court (capacity: 2,200). The boys tournament has always played their title games at the larger venue.
This was the 75th anniversary of the girls basketball provincials.
LEC brass had Saturday’s attendance maxing out at 2,900, which came when No. 2 seeded Seaquam of North Delta scored a 68-67 triumph over the No. 4 Brookswood Bobcats of Langley in the day’s main event.
“I absolutely love it,” Toor said of playing in the arena. “I told everyone involved to not worry about the (empty) blue seats you see here. It takes a year or two to get something going, but you have to start somewhere.
“It was an unbelievable crowd. It was so cool for these girls to play on this court with this atmosphere. It reminded me as a kid of wanting to play at the Agrodome (the former boys tournament home).”
Attendance Saturday dipped below 1,000 at points. It wasn’t good for the eyeball test. It never sounded or felt barren, though. The atmosphere managed to stay energetic and lively throughout.
The games were entertaining and close and that played a role, no doubt.
Seaquam and Brookswood had 15 lead changes on the night, and the Bobcats (22:01) wound up being up on the scoreboard for more minutes than the Seahawks (13:21).
In the previous games, the No. 1 seeded MEI Eagles (Abbotsford) edged the No. 2 Sa-Hali Sabres (Kamloops) 50-49 for the Triple A banner, while the No. 2 St. Michaels University School Blue Jags (Victoria) outlasted the No. 1 Holy Cross Crusaders (Surrey) 62-54 in Double A and the No. 1 Pacific Christian Pacers (Victoria) downed the No. 2 Sir Alexander Mackenzie Grizzlies (Hagensborg) 70-63 in Single A.
“It feels like NCAA. It elevates where women need to be in sport,” Pacific Christian co-coach Jen Stewart said of playing the finals in the arena. “This is where it needs to be and where it needs to stay. I feel like the girls and how they competed is exactly a testament to what it means. If you put it in a place like this, it will be exciting basketball, it will be excellent basketball. This is where we deserve to be.”
SMUS coach Lindsay Brooke added: “It needs to be in this kind of space. It elevates the game. Obviously we would love for it to be packed, and maybe that is where it gets to in a couple of years. It’s going to take some time but we’ll get there.”
Playing in the arena is obviously more expensive than playing at centre court. How the LEC and B.C. School Sports work out agreements is kept behind the scenes, but organizers across the board seemed pleased with how things went Saturday.
There had been conversations about moving the girls finals to the arena for a few years, but the talk really seemed to heat up at last season’s tournament. Seaquam Grade 11 forward Camryn Tait, who was named the Quad A most valuable player, says her team came to the boys championship Saturday last season and “we talked about how this is where we wanted to be next year and here we are.”
“The atmosphere was so exciting,” she said.
The 6-foot-1 Tait finished with 21 points and 11 rebounds. She’s the daughter of Brian Tait, who was a star guard for the 1987-88 Richmond Colts teams that won back-to-back Quad A boys crowns. He was a first team all-star at the 1988 tournament.
She was often matched up Saturday with Brookswood Grade 10 Jordyn Nohr, who finished with 28 points, nine rebounds and seven assists Saturday and was later named a first team all-star. She’s the daughter of Randy Nohr, who was a star guard on the 1994-95 Aldergrove Totems that won back-to-back Double A boys titles. He was a first team all-star both years and tournament MVP in 1995.
A Nohr drive to the hoop with 2:09 left Saturday made it 68-64 in Seaquam’s favour. Brookswood Grade 12 forward Hazel Phillips drained a three-pointer with 45 seconds remaining to cut it by one point, but that’s as close as they would come.
Brookswood was looking for a third straight title at a third different level, as they won the juniors in 2023 and took Triple A last year before being bumped up a level this year due to school population changes. Seaquam’s core group won juniors in 2022.
“They’re an awesome team,” Tait said of Brookswood. “They work super hard and you always have to match their compete level.
“Jordyn is obviously an amazing player. It’s always fun to play against someone like her. She’s such a challenge for us on the defensive end.”
Toor said: “Hats off to Brookswood. I have the utmost respect for that team, for that coaching staff, for Jordyn Nohr. I told her that she didn’t let me sleep last night. I was up trying to game plan, simply because of her and how dominant she is.”
Pacific Christian and SMUS came into Saturday with similar stories. Pacific Christian had losses in the Single A final last year and the Double A title game in 2023, while SMUS was runner-up in Triple A the past two seasons.
On Saturday, Sir Alexander Mackenzie cut the Pacific Christian lead to 56-55 with 9:06 to go. The Grizzlies had a pair of starters foul out after that and they lost steam. Pacific Christian Grade 11 guard Kealayna Tupas-Singh had 29 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists in the triumph and was later named the tournament’s most valuable player.
Holy Cross cut the SMUS lead to 58-52 on a bucket by Grade 11 guard Isla Iannuzzi with 1:16 remaining but that was their final push. Blue Jags Grade 12 guard Avery Geddes — the daughter of coach Brooke, a former high school star at Spectrum and then collegiately at UVic — had 22 points and seven rebounds in the final and took tournament MVP honours.
The MEI game had its slow moments — Sa-Hali was 2-of-22 from the field to start the game — but it did come through with an engaging finish, as Grade 12 Olivia Sidhu’s lay-in with 19.3 seconds remaining provided the margin of victory for the Eagles. That contest had eight lead changes.
The victory marked the first senior girls provincial championship for MEI since they took Quad A in 1999, and coach Rick Thiessen was choked up after the game on Saturday. It was the first B.C. title for him as coach after 31 years of guiding Grade 8, junior and senior teams at the school, and he’s hinted strongly that he’s done coaching at the senior level after this season.
“It felt surreal,” he said. “Amazing.”
Sa-Hali Grade 12 guard Nevena Nogic was picked tournament MVP. She had 25 points in the final.
The boy’s tournaments start Wednesday at the LEC.
@SteveEwen