In the opening round: …………………………………………………… The Salmon Arm Jewels thrashed the Cranbrook Mount Baker Wild 87-36 as Lani Gibbons scored 26, including 6 treys, and dished 7 assists. Gina Guimont led the Wild with 17 points and 10 boards. Lindsay Maundrell added 17. The Jewels, who come at you in waves of speed and skill, forced the Wild into 45 turnovers. They also hit .400 from the field “Salmon Arm has an incredible defence,” Wild coach Bill Stephens told the Vancouver Sun. “Their defence should take them to the finals.” Mount Baker had changed their nickname from the Trojanettes to the Wild at the start of the campaign to escape references to the condom company. The Wild (coached by Stephens) also included Jen Anderberg, Stephen Greenlay. …………………………………………………… The top-seeded Mission Heritage Park Highlanders whipped the 16th seeded Terrace Caledonia Kermodes 77-17 as Kim Smith scored 29 on 11-15 from the floor, 1-4 from the arc, 6-10 from the line and 12 boards. Centre Pam Gavronsky led the Kermodes with 11. The reigning champion Highlanders limited Caledonia to six field goals and led 50-4 at the half. Smith told the Sun that “you have to give them credit, they showed a lot of heart out there. They kept on diving for the balls all game long. They never gave up. That says a lot about the team.” Gavronsky added that “I’m sure everyone was feeling sorry for us out there. But you have to understand that we have never played against a team nearly as good as the Highlanders. For us to score even 17 points against them is amazing.” The Kermodes (coached by Bill Gook) also included Kelly Haugland, Sonia More, Gillian Gook, Leah Malo. …………………………………………………… The North Vancouver Argyle Pipers whipped the Prince George Polars 82-50 as Kelsey Blair scored 25 and Ashley Burke 17, along with 11 boards, 9 assists and 6 steals, and Michelle Stiphout 12. The Pipers led 26-9 after one quarter in the romp. Anna Zielke led the Polars with 11. The Polars (coached by Tammy Gamble) also included Kristine Hamilton, Megan Bolin, Deborah Cerrigan, Chelsea Anchikoski. …………………………………………………… The 4th-seeded Port Moody Blues clipped the 13th-seeded Courtenay Georges P. Vanier Towhees 72-27 as Emily Beers scored 18 and nabbed 8 boards. “It is all about defense,” Blues coach Dave Sands told the Sun. “And the team that plays the best defense wins.” Cynthia Charlesworth led the Towhees with 12. The Towhees (coached by Tessa Devereaux) also included Alexis Cottini.…………………………………………………… The 10th-seeded Maple Ridge Ramblers stomped the 7th-seeded Victoria Claremont Spartans 85-33 as Ciana Gregorio scored 25 on 4-7 from the arc and 8 boards. “I thought it would be closer,” Ramblers’ coach Don Herman told the Sun. “But they had problems with our 2-2-1 press.” Maya Miguel led the Spartans with 11. Roslyn Lundeen added just 5. The Ramblers ran their offensive crisply, shot well when it mattered and flustered the Vancouver Island champion Spartans into shooting 19 per cent from the field. “We hadn’t been playing well for a while but this had to be our best game of the year,” Gregorio told the Vancouver Province. “We were all sitting on the bench going, `what’s happening? what’s happening?’ We’re just glad that it did.” The Spartans (coached by Mark Neufeld) also included Rosalyn Lundeen, Lynell McLean, Val Henry. …………………………………………………… The 12th-seeded North Vancouver Handsworth Royals dumped the 5th-seeded Penticton Lakettes 70-54 as Kelly Ramsay scored 19, Erin Gjernes 14, Sandra Harris 14 and Erica McGuinness 12. Lindsay McKee led the Lakettes with 17. Kelly-Rae Kenyon added 13 and Kelly-Rae Kenyon 6 on 3-19 from the floor. McGuinness controlled the tempo. “It’s way better to be on the floor than in the stands,” McGuinness, who had 13 points, 6 assists and 8 boards, told the Vancouver Province. “When you’re playing, you get to actually feel the emotion that all the girls feel. It’s a great, great tournament.” Handsworth coach Shaun McGuinness told the Vancouver Sun that the win was “surprising. Penticton came in with a great record and they’re just so darn athletic. We were concerned about their speed and knew we had to slow the game down to stay with them. Fortunately, we were able to do that.” The Royals led 36-19 at the half and romped. “We haven’t lost a game all year when we’ve had four players score in double figures. We played man-to-man defence and executed it very well. The idea was not to let them penetrate on their drives and force them to take bad shots. I was pleased with our defence.” The Lakettes also included Allison Omland, Jacquie Kenyon…………………………………………………………………. The New Westminster Hyacks defeated Maple Ridge Thomas Haney Thunder 56-51 as Mollie Stelmack sank two free throws with 5 seconds remaining. The Thunder (coached by Kerry Rokosh) included Bianca Salazar, Kim Howe, Ashley Misky. …………………………………………………… The 6th-seeded Langley Brookswood Bobcats crushed the Richmond Hugh McRoberts Strikers 76-45 as Laura Liem scored 19 and Laura Hawley 19. Bobcats coach Winfred Lieum told the Langley Advance that “we hd jitters at the beginning but as the game went on, we started to calm down.” The Strikers (coached by Trish Nicholson) included Chrissie Robinson, Katie Tupper, Crystal Herman, Brianna Scarr.
In the quarterfinals, the 10th-seed Maple Ridge Ramblers stunned the 2nd-seeded Salmon Arm Jewels 51-47 as Jordie Miltimore scored 16 and grabbed 14 rebounds, Kelsie Thu 8 and Heidi Ostberg 8. The match pitted the Ramblers interior play against the Jewel’s perimeter shooting. But the latter deserted Salmon Arm for the most of the match as they hit only 10-36 from beyond the arc. Maple Ridge coach Don Herman told the Vancouver Sun “it’s definitely the biggest win of my career. I can’t think of anything bigger than this. I just told the girls before the game to play loose, enjoy yourselves and do your best. All of the pressure was obviously on Salmon Arm. We had nothing to lose in this game.” Guard Ciana Gregorio said “we were well prepared for this game. I think the biggest thing we did was play a zone defence, which we don’t normally do. We went to the zone because we knew that Salmon Arm was a very athletic and quick team. We knew we’d have trouble handling them man-to-man.” The Ramblers led 14-10, 22-19 and 38-33 at the quarters. The Jewels led only twice – by three points, briefly, in the second and third quarters. Gregorio hit three-point shots on each occasion to tie it. Herman said the win was “the biggest in our school’s history for girls. It may not mean anything yet, because we’re still building for the next few games, but as far as the underdog part of it and beating such a good team at a clutch time, it feels pretty good, especially after they hammered us all year.” The first half was a tight defensive affair with Salmon Arm collapsing quickly in the paint, while Maple Ridge quickly closed out on perimeter shooters. But guard Gregorio and Miltimore got on track late in the first half was the Ramblers built a 22-19 lead at the break. Miltimore continued to scramble for every rebound and loose ball in the second half, while Salmon Arm’s shooting woes continued. Only guard Kim Bridge found her range to keep the Jewels within reach. The game stayed close until the final 30 seconds when a tough call by the officials set up what would be a Ramblers victory. With 23 seconds left and clinging to a 48-47 lead, Gregorio flipped the ball to Miltimore, who was standing just behind the three-point line. With less than 2 seconds left on the shot clock, Miltimore attempted to get a desperation shot past two Salmon Arm players, one of which fouled her. Miltimore made all three of the foul shots to give the Ramblers a 51-47 lead, which turned out to be the final score. Gregorio attributed the win to coach Herman’s game plan. “We played zone, and we never play zone. It was just smart coaching, and I think he’s an amazing coach. He came up with the right plays at the right time, and we did it. It’s an awesome, great feeling to get this win.” Star Jewels point guard Lani Gibbons was held to 12 points. Lindsay Maundrell paced the Jewels with 19. Lani Gibbons added 12 on 4-22 from the floor, and Kim Bridge 12 on 4-7 from the arc. “Oh, no, you never worry about the draw,” said Salmon Arm coach Brian Gibbons told the Vancouver Province when asked whether the Ramblers should have been a higher seed. The Jewels had beaten the Ramblers 83-31 during the regular season. “We come here to win this tournament and to win this tournament you have to beat somebody good. It doesn’t matter when you have to beat them. We just couldn’t hit our outside shots today.” Maple Ridge went to a zone defence, which limited Salmon Arm’s motion offence and forced them to the perimeter. The Jewels hit just .240 from the field. “I wouldn’t really call this an upset,” said Ramblers guard Ciana Gregorio. “We just worked harder than they did, I think. We wanted it more.” Jewels guard Kim Bridge told the Sun “I think we played the best that we could. The other team played really well and they beat us, bottom line.” Gibbons added that “we are all pretty sad. Maple Ridge is a big team and our shots just were not going down. But I know we will all feel better tomorrow, right now we are just a bit shook up.” Jewels coach Brian Gibbons added that “they have to feel good about how they played. If we had knocked down a few more shots we would have been there. We were in and out of that rim all game long. We played pretty solid and they played with a lot of heart. I am really proud of them.” The Jewels finished 37-2 on the campaign. Danielle Murdoch told the Salmon Arm Observor that “our shots simply didn’t go down.” The Jewels (coached by Brian Gibbons, assisted by Allison Redding) also included Nadeane Jackson, Sydney Pachmann, Jill Hanson, Theresa Knipe, Danielle Vandervelde.
The top-seeded Mission Heritage Park Highlanders defeated the 8th-seeded New Westminster Hyacks 66-43 as Julia Wilson scored 20 and grabbed 11 boards. Krista Woodward led the Hyacks with 26 points and 16 boards. The Hyacks (coached by Doug Woodward) also included Erika Sotto, Mollie Stelmack, Liz Smith.
The 6th-seeded Langley Brookswood Bobcats defeated the North Vancouver Argyle Pipers 85-69 as Laura van den Boogard scored 29. The Bobcats hit 12-28 from the arc, as 5-5 grade 10 guard Shauna Liem notched six treys to scored 18 points, four more than grade 12 sister and starting point guard Lauren Liem. Ashley Burke paced Argyle with 22. “We had a plan and part of it was to make sure that Argyle didn’t get good looks from the perimeter,” Brookswood coach Winfred Liem told the Vancouver Sun. “We know that Argyle is tough once they get their perimeter game going and we defended them very aggressively in that respect. We also wanted to take away their rebounding in the post and were pretty successful there as well.” Brookswood led 19-14, 48-30 and 73-50 at the quarters. Liem was in his first season at the Bobcats helm. He coached the Maple Ridge Thomas Haney Thunder to provincial titles in 1996 and 1997. Ashley Burke led Argyle with 22. The Pipers (coached by Neil Wickson) also included Kelsey Blair, Kelly Houston, Michell Stiphout.
In the last quarterfinal, the 4th-seeded Port Moody Blues defeated the 12th-seeded North Vancouver Handsworth Royals 66-45 as Emily Beers scored 24 and grabbed 11 boards. Sandra Harris paced the Royals with 16. The Royals (coached by Shaun McGuinness) also included Erica McGuinness, Stephanie Haug, Kelly Ramsay.
In the semis, the 6th-seeded Langley Brookswood Bobcats defeated the 10th-seeded Maple Ridge Ramblers 66-60 in a double-overtime thriller as Lauren Liem scored 26 and Laura van den Boogard 18. Brookswood appeared in command after the first half as Liem kept the Ramblers on their heels with a series of aggressive drives. But Maple Ridge played with more confidence in the second half, trimming the margin to 40-39 after three quarters. Liem and Jordana Miltimore carried their teams in the final quarter, with the Bobcats clinging to a slim lead. Rambler Heidi Ostberg hit a free throw with 16.9 seconds on the clock to tie the game at 53. She missed the second. “It’s tough, she hits the first one and then just clangs off the rim on the second,” Ramblers coach Don Herman told the Vancouver Sun. “Of course, I feel for her. She feels she’s let her teammates down, she’s a senior, in her Grade 12 year. But she played awesome for us all season.” The first overtime was nip-and-tuck, with the scored tied at 57 after one extra session. Liem came out firing in the second overtime, driving for a hoop and then nailing a three-pointer off a Rambler turnover to give Brookswood a 62-57 lead. Guard Ciana Gregorio countered with a long three-pointer while falling backwards to trim the lead. But the Ramblers Ostberg missed a pair of free throws that would have tied it and then Gregorio went in for a layup with 45 seconds to play but the ball wedged in between the hoop and the backboard, giving Brookswood possession. When the Bobcats’ Laura van den Boogard missed a three-pointer and her teammates corralled the rebound, the game was all but over. Foul shots by Liem and Ann DeReus sealed the victory. Brookswood coach Winfred Liem said the key was shutting down Gregorio. “My game plan was to shut her down,” he said. “And I think Laura Hawley did an outstanding job. But we never realized that Kelsie Thu was going to step it up, and she gave us problems, which made us go man-to-man in the second half. I give Maple Ridge a lot of credit, it was a great game.” Winfred Liem told the Sun: “Do you think we entertained everyone? This is an amazing group of girls. Forget the basketball; think about what this experience does for these kids five or six years from now. They will have jobs, careers, families one day and they will always be able to look back and relate to this, say `I’m never going to quit.’ This is a life lesson about staying in the game, something you can translate into any career.” Lauren Liem, whose two older sisters won BC titles with Thomas Haney, noted “this means the world to me. Ever since Grade 5, since I started playing and watched my sisters win the B.C.’s, I’ve always wanted a chance to be in the final. This is my last kick, I’m in Grade 12. I guess we might have won earlier if I’d made a few more of my free throws.” van den Boogard noted that “my God, we’re in, we’re in. This means so much, we beat them in double overtime in the Fraser Valleys and we knew they were coming to get us here. You can’t believe the emotion that was on our bench yet we all knew we had to stay calm and level-headed. This is a dream come true for me, for us.” Herman said, with hindsight, he would “done some different” to shutdown Liem. “I would have doubled down on her, but we were also concerned with her younger sister [Shauna Liem] and Laura van den Boogard. They scored a lot of threes against the Argyle Pipers Thursday night and we didn’t want to let them do that again.”
In the other semi, the Heritage Park Highlanders pounded the Port Moody Blues 71-53 as Kim Smith scored 19 and Katja Fuess 17, along with 10 boards. The Blues ran into foul trouble late in the third quarter when Jen Lodge was whistled for her fourth and Emily Beers her third. The Highlanders, who’d led 33-28 at the half, promptly pulled away. Beers led the Blues with 21. Lauren Woodman added 14. “Any time someone gets into foul trouble, they’re going to be a little less aggressive on the defensive side of things,” Blues’ co-coach Dave Sands told the Vancouver Sun. “Heritage Park is a great team and they’re coached so well. So they’re going to go after that, expose that weakness and try to get that fifth foul. Five points at the half is a great score against the lead team in the province. But you are not going to beat Heritage Park with something you come up with the night before a semi-final. It takes much more than that.”
In the bronze medal match, the Port Moody Blues defeated the Maple Ridge Ramblers 74-59 as Steph Albiston scored 22 on 11-13 from the line. Emily Beers added 20 on 9-10 from the line and 13 boards, and Jen Lodge 17. “We played with heart and we played as a team,” Lodge told the Vancouver Sun. “We did it for our seniors.” Heidi Ostberg led the Ramblers with 16 on 7-7 from the floor. “The mental exhaustion that took place on both teams after our semi-final losses was evident,” Blues coach Dave Sands told the Vancouver Sun. “I felt the team that could overcome the mental anguish that went on the night before was going to win the game.” The Blues built an early 19-7 lead. Beers said “we wanted to show character today. We worked so hard to get to the finals but we had to show that we could come back today and play hard.” The Blues hit 24-29 from the line, while the Ramblers were 14-19. “We played a lot of tough games this tournament and we just didn’t have anything left tonight,” said Ramblers coach Don Herman. “The body just was not there. We really ran out of gas.” Guard Sarah Moody added that “we are so drained. We really could not move out there, we were so slow and tired.” The Ramblers (coached by Herman) also included Jordie Miltimore, Kelsie Thu, Ciana Gregorio, Cailie Switch, Stephanie Covington, Chelsea Jampton, Sarah Moody.
In the final, the top-seeded Mission Heritage Park Highlanders became the 10th team to repeat as champs by defeating the 6th-seeded Langley Brookswood Bobcats 78-52. The Highlanders exploded to a 22-3 lead at the start but Brookswood rallied back as guards Lauren Liem and Caroline Samus got on track. Heritage Park proved the case for its 39-0 record entering the game, as their offence ran smoothly and their defence shut down Brookswood. Kim Smith led the way with 31, including 11 in the final quarter, along with 13 boards, 3 assists and 1 block. Katja Fuess added 16 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists. Bobcats coach Winfred Liem was a teacher and coach at New Westminster until 2000, when a falling out with parents and the administration led to him running a club team that lured away many of the school’s best players. This year, he opted to coach at Brookswood and moved his family to Langley so that his two daughters could play under him. Three other girls from New Westminster moved with their families to the area, too, and a sixth is coming next year. “There’s nothing in the middle with him,” Brookswood forward Laura van den Boogaard said of Liem, who is either loved or loathed in the hoops community. She also admitted that there were sections of the crowd at Saturday’s final who couldn’t decide which team to root for. “People didn’t want to cheer for Heritage because everyone thought Heritage was going to win and everyone wants to cheer for an underdog,” she said. “And we’re not always well liked.” Liem’s harshest critics had to be impressed with the job he did this week, though. The Bobcats shot hours of game film throughout the year and Liem and his assistants came up with junk defensive schemes that shut down the Argyle Pipers and Maple Ridge Ramblers. Brookswood also gave Heritage Park one of their tougher games this year. “Without our coaches, we wouldn’t have been here,” said van den Boogaard. “They pulled all-nighters, looked at all that videotape. I don’t know how long they spent just staring at television sets.” Highlanders coach Bruce Langford thought his troops could get even better. “Next year’s team could be the best of all time,” said Langford, whose squad loses one player, guard Sheryll Wong, to graduation this year. “If they work hard, they have that potential. Is that scary? No, it’s exciting. The time that these kids have put in and the skill level that they’re at has made kids on other teams better.” It’s a bold claim, being the best ever, but Langford does have evidence to support his case. The Highlanders lost just once in 41 starts this year, falling to Oregon powerhouse Springfield in a Christmas tournament. The Mission team had four players 6-0 or taller, including tournament MVP Kim Smith and first all-star Katja Fuess. They also sport a slew of unheralded talents who would be marquee names elsewhere, most notably guard Kendra McLellan. “They’ve got size, power… they’ve got every position,” said Brookswood guard Laura van den Boogaard. “And they’re very well coached. And, ah, they’re all back.” Kim Smith, who had physiotherapy on her back four hours before the game, dominated the floor. “She’s been injured all week, but we really didn’t want anybody to know,” Bruce Langford told the Vancouver Sun. “She was fantastic. What else can you say?” The low-key Smith added only: “It really wasn’t that bad. I feel good now.” The Highlanders raced to an 18-2 lead and romped. They did it mostly with defence, keeping the ball out of the hands of Brookswood star point guard Lauren Liem as best they could and getting out on the Bobcats’ bevy of outside shooters. Brookswood had shot .333 (19-57) from three-point range in their previous three games at the tournament, but due to strong Heritage Park pressure, they went 1-16 (6 per cent) from outside the arc last night. Still, Brookswood made things a little interesting in the fourth quarter, cutting the lead to 57-46 with five minutes to play. Smith, with five buckets and one assists, promptly powered Heritage Park to a 12-7 run that put the game away. “Kim’s amazing,” said Highlanders forward Katja Fuess. “She can do anything.” Fuess finished with 16 points and six rebounds. Lauren Liem paced Brookswood with 16 points, 6 boards and 4 assists. Caroline Samus added 10, including 9 in the final quarter, and a series of slashing drive and dishes. Smith told the Sun “we had a lot of respect for Brookswood because they’re a very athletic team with good outside shooters. But we also knew that we had more weapons. We had to pick it up a notch or two in the championship game and I think we did tonight.” Liem told the Langley Advance “they were giants and we were smurfs.”
The bronze medalist Port Moody Blues: Jen Lodge; Emily Beers; Lauren Woodman; Stephanie Albiston; Erica Serena; Alyson Carter; coaches Sue MacPherson; coach Dave Sands
The silver medalist Langley Brookswood Bobcats: Laura van den Boogard; Lauren Liem; Caroline Samus; Ann DeReus; Shauna Liem; Laura Lawley; Katie DeReus; Terri-Anne Johnson; coach Wilfred Liem; assistant Steve Tanaka; assistant Russ Hall; assistant Ivan Adrian
The gold medalist Mission Heritage Park Highlanders: Julia Wilson; Kim Smith; Katja Fuess; Sarah Stroh; Sheryll Wong; Kendra McLellan; Lisa Sigurdson; Jessi Laslo; coach Bruce Langford