The McMath Wildcats took their season to Langley but not in the ultimate venue they were hoping for.
The five-time Richmond senior girls champions saw their campaign end Tuesday at Walnut Grove Secondary in a 72-63 provincial “AAA” wild card game loss to the Heritage Woods Kodiaks. Both teams were relegated to the do-or-die affair after not securing B.C. berths at their zone championships.
Five days earlier, the Wildcats were 10 minutes away from earning their fourth straight trip to the Langley Events Centre. They took a lead into the final quarter of their Crehan Cup semi-final encounter with Carson Graham, only to be outscored 17-5 and lose 59-51.
A 65-58 win over Handsworth on Friday earned them another crack at a B.C. berth — this time in Saturday’s third place game against the New West Hyacks. McMath’s usually reliable perimeter game struggled for two quarters in an eventual 62-52 setback.
That meant a wild card game scenario where too many Lower Mainland teams have seen their B.C. bids end over the last two decades against the extremely deep Fraser Valley zone.
Heritage Woods entered the Valley playoffs ranked No. 4 in the province but stumbled in a 55-54 round of 16 loss to Sullivan Heights. They closed out the championships with another setback — this time to Brookswood — leaving them eighth. The Port Moody school is led by UBC bound Hailey Counsell.
“It was a terrible match-up for us but we worked so hard,” said McMath co-coach Chris Kennedy. That was probably the best effort we have given all season. If you are going to lose, at least go down like that which was kind of nice.
“We needed two more inches at every position and that game definitely goes the other way. We actually executed very well and lost to a very good team.”
The Wildcats trailed 35-27 at the break and their season seemed to slipping away when the Kodiaks extended the margin to 13 points early in the third quarter.
However, they weren’t going to go away that easily. The Steveston school made it 57-53 with 5:33 remaining and even had a chance in the game’s final minute when Liz Kennedy’s put back pulled them within six points.
It was a performance that would have sent them to the LEC if it had been duplicated a few days earlier.
“We will probably look at that Carson Graham game,” said Kennedy. “Liz picked up a quick foul to start the fourth quarter and her fifth with eight minutes to go. We just didn’t have a (defensive) match-up for them inside after that.”
The Wildcats will be left with some significant holes to fill moving forward — none bigger than high-scoring guard Abby Zawada who is taking her career the University of the Fraser Valley next season. Martha Melaku has also been a very dependable scoring option. Both girls finished with 20 points in their final game after earlier being named Lower Mainland all-stars. Defensive standout Dakota Chan will also be missed.
“Abby will go down as definitely one of the best players this century in Richmond,” added Kennedy. “She went to four provincials, finished second at one of them and was a two time (city) MVP. That is pretty neat.
“It’s going to be a little bit of a transition for us but it will be reload not rebuild. Abby and Martha’s team now becomes Liz and Jayna (Wilson’s) team. We have a real nice program going right now. The gym will be open Sunday night and we will be back working again.”
At the buzzer….
Richmond runner-up Hugh Boyd saw its season end at the Lower Mainland “AA” Championships with a 59-32 loss to Seycove. The Trojans opened with a 62-53 triumph over Tupper before turning in a strong performance in a 61-47 setback to eventual runner-up St. Thomas Aquanis.
