The Brentwood College School senior girls basketball team fought their way into the BC High School Sports girls basketball AA provincial championships Feb. 28-March 2 in Langley by placing second overall in the Island championship tournament and then surviving a challenge game against the Qualicum Condors to retain their provincial berth.
“The coaches and the whole school were super proud of this group,” said Blake Gage, BCS director of athletics. “Nobody saw them getting back to provincials this year but they really came together and improved tremendously over the course of the season.”
The team entered the provincial tournament seeded 16th of 16 teams so they knew they’d have to continue fighting every step of the way. And fight they did.
BCS first faced the event’s No. 1 seed, Mulgrave School, on Feb. 28, and lost 96-37. Mulgrave went on to place second overall in the tournament, losing 75-69 to a strong Langley Christian School team.
In their second game of the event, BCS bounced back on Feb. 29 to beat Abbotsford Christian School 48-42.
Gage called it “a huge win”.
“The girls may have played their best game of the year,” he said.
Their two-game split meant BCS went on to play Fernie on March 1 with Fernie besting BCS 57-39, sending team from Mill Bay to the 11th-12th place game.
In their final game of the event, BCS fell 51-39 to Lambrick Park, finishing 12th overall, four spots higher than their original ranking.
“As the 16 seed in the tournament they surprised a lot of teams,” Gage said. “We lose some strong senior leaders but the core of this team returns so we are very excited for next year.”