They didn’t win any hardware but two Prince Rupert basketball teams can return to the North Coast with their heads held high after leaving everything they had on the court last weekend in Pitt Meadows and Langley.
The Grade 8 boys Prince Rupert Middle School Storm suffered a heartbreaking defeat right off the bat at the 2015 Grade 8 Provincial Basketball Championship in Pitt Meadows in their first game against Kelowna’s Dr. Knox Middle School, losing 54-53 in a game that was up for grabs right down to the wire for coach Cary Dalton and his crew.
Following the loss, the Storm played Abbotsford’s Colleen and Gordie Howe Middle School and Penticton’s KVR Middle School but fell in defeat 56-27 and 44-33 respectively. The Storm then finished the tournament with a game against host Pitt Meadows and upset the hosts 41-20.
The Storm’s Liam McChesney came away with a third-team all-star nod for his efforts and the team finished 15th.
Charles Hays Secondary School’s (CHSS) junior girls Rainmakers were also in action at the Langley Events Centre in the 2015 TELUS Junior Girls Basketball Provincial Championship and finished 16th after facing the top teams in B.C.
Day one featured a tough Lord Tweedsmuir team from Surrey, who beat CHSS 77-14. Tweedsmuir went on to capture second-place in the whole tournament.
Next up for the girls was North Vancouver’s Seycove Secondary, who defeated the Rainmakers in a closer bout, 37-18.
Then, it was a battle of northern B.C. when College Heights from Prince George took on the Rainmakers and defeated their coastal opponents 55-16.
The final game for coach Anna Ashley’s crew had them up against Langley’s Brookswood Secondary and the Lower Mainland team took the game 35-22 in the Rainmakers’ closest-fought match of the tourney.
Burnaby South defeated Vancouver’s Sir Charles Tupper for the Grade 8 2015 B.C. basketball title and Surrey’s Panorama Ridge won the junior girls championship, beating top seed Lord Tweedsmuir.