Fans rushed to the floor when the final buzzer sounded and emotions filled the court as Richmond’s McMath senior girls basketball team took home the school’s first provincial championship title in history this past weekend.
The Wildcats defeated MEI Eagles 51-46 at the B.C. School Sports 3A Girls Basketball Provincials, which was held at the Langley Event Centre on Saturday evening.
Jamie Kippan, who coaches the team along with Zoran Radocaj and Anne Grillrie-Carre, said the win “is a pretty big deal” for the school.
“The team was obviously ecstatic,” said Kippan, adding that every player contributed to the success despite the team not being very big.
“This was the most complete team victory I’ve ever been a part of.”
He added that Tim Carkner, Rod Jensen and Chris Kennedy also played huge roles in coaching many of the girls to prepare them for their senior years on the team.
Kippan told the Richmond News that, given it’s the first B.C. sports banner the senior girls basketball team has won for McMath, they’re all excited for next season already.
“We worked hard for it this entire year and to get to the final game and to win it, the girls were just thrilled,” said Kippan.
“This is as high as we can go and it’s the pinnacle. The girls are pretty excited and we get a bunch of them back next year too so I think we’ll have a good team in the following year.”
At the provincial championships, the Wildcats defeated Duchess Park 105-30 in their first game and College Heights 93-49 in their second game.
The team headed into the semi-finals against Burnaby Central with a score of 80-64, which allowed McMath’s team to earn a spot in the AAA championship finals against MEI.
Wildcats’ MVP Marina Radocaj scored seven of her 20 points in the final period of the game leading the team to victory.
The Grade 11 student also had three steals, three assists and a pair of blocked shots which named her Player of the Game.
Alongside Radocaj, Caitlin Kippan, who plays forward, scored 15 points for McMath, while guard Kee Hohlweg finished with 10 points and 13 rebounds.
Hohlweg was named to the first all-star team as well.
Team members include Aaria Johal, Andreas Chan, Emma Bradley-Tse, Teagan Ng, Tamar Gordon, Amelia Spiteri, Sarah Carkner, Tiana Maedel and Emi Nishi.
This season, the McMath senior girl’s basketball team was undefeated in the Richmond League play with a 9-0 record and victories against McNair, Steveston-London and MacNeill.
This led them to the South Fraser Zone Championship and qualifying for the Provincial Championships after defeating North Delta, Clayton Heights and Salish Secondary schools.
Overall, the team won a record of 24 wins and had five losses during the season and ended the year with an 11-game win streak to claim the B.C. championships.
