The McMath Wildcats have reached the B.C. “AAA” Girls Basketball Championships Final Four for the first time in school history.
The #2 ranked Wildcats advanced with a 78-63 quarter-final victory over the #7 Abbotsford Panthers on Thursday at the Langley Events Centre. McMath will now face #3 Lord Tweedsmuir in the semi-finals at 7:45 p.m. on Friday.
McMath pulled away from the Panthers with a big second half, led by the red-hot perimeter shooting of Lyric Custodio.
The Grade 10 guard hit five three pointers in the third quarter alone as the Wildcats extended a two-point halftime lead into a 62-48 cushion. Most of her “bombs” were a couple of feet beyond the arc. She added another in the fourth and finished with 21 points to earn player-of-the-game honours.
McMath was able to overcome a slow start that resulted in a young Panthers team jumping out to a 25-16 second quarter lead. Grade 12 standout Jessica Jones kept the game close with 18 of her game-high 28 points coming in the first half before her teammates finally heated up. Coaches Anne Gillrie-Carre and Paul Jones also had to carefully negotiate their rotation with Bobbi-Jo Colburn (two) and Custodio (three) in early foul trouble. Colburn had nine of her 14 points in the second half. Jessica Zawada added 15.
The Wildcats opened play Wednesday with an easy 78-34 win over Cranbrook’s Mt. Baker Trojans. Jones had 23 points and Colburn added 20.
McMath and Tweedsmuir squared off in late January at the St. Thomas More Tournament where the Wildcats trimmed the Cloverdale school 60-57 in the third place game. They also met in quarter-finals at the Tsumura Invitational back in December with the Wildcats also winning that encounter, 63-53.
The other B.C. AAA semi-final match-up has No. 1 and defending champion Brookswood taking on Oak Bay.
