It was a big weekend for Richmond girls basketball at the B.C. Grade 9 Championships in Vancouver with a pair of podium finishes.
The Steveston-London Sharks capped another dominant campaign with a 56-48 win over Kelowna’s KLO Cougars in Saturday’s title game played at Britannia Secondary School.
The Sharks were second at the Grade 8 provincials a year earlier and picked up where they left off with unbeaten runs in Richmond league play and the Vancouver and District Championships.
The 16-team tournament’s top seed opened with a 69-4 win over Killarney, and also rolled past Maple Ridge 58-29 in the quarter-finals. The Sharks defeated North Vancouver’s Argyle Pipers 64-46 in Friday night’s semi-final match-up before finally dealing with some adversity in the championship game.
A big second quarter gave KLO a 33-24 halftime lead. The Sharks answered the challenge by rallying to tie the game at 42-42 after three quarters, then turned up their defensive intensity even further for the eight-point victory.
Sharlene Siy earned tournament MVP honours, while Mina Chong and Katie Chan were named to the all-star team.
Earlier, Steveston-London slipped past rival McMath 38-37 to win the Richmond championship and again in the V&D final (52-34).
The Sharks are coached by Rob Urquart and Connie Chan.
The Wildcats also made plenty of noise at Britannia, concluding their impressive campaign with a win over Argyle to place third.
Seeded No. 2, McMath took care of Kitsilano (53-24) in the opening round and Van Tech (62-39) in the quarter-finals. The title bid ended with a hard-fought 70-62 setback to KLO.
The third place finish was a marked improvement from 2017 when McMath finished 11th at the Grade 8 provincials.
Kate Carkner and Abby Boden were both named tournament all-stars.
The Wildcats are coached by Tim Carkner who also worked with many of the players from both schools through the Richmond Youth Basketball League (RBYL).
