It was a standout week for SMUS basketball, highlighted by championship performances, playoff pushes, and teams across the program showing resilience and growth. The Senior and Junior Girls captured Vancouver Island titles, while other Blue Jags squads battled through intense Island competition with eyes on provincial opportunities.
Senior Girls Basketball
The SMUS Senior Girls turned in one of their best performances of the season this past Saturday night at Vic High, beating rival Mark Isfeld of Courtenay 47-37 in the Vancouver Island AAA Basketball Championship game.
Forward Mikaela Dubé scored 22 points and grabbed eight rebounds in the final to earn Island tournament MVP honours as the BC fourth-ranked Blue Jags defeated Isfeld, the No. 2 team in the latest provincial AAA rankings. But it was a total team effort as the SMUS defence smothered the athletic Ice attack in the final quarter, holding Isfeld to just two points in front of a large and noisy crowd.
Key three-pointers by guards Leila Mostachfi and Mya Beare in the fourth quarter, along with some strong finishes by Dubé, helped the Blue Jags extend a one-point lead after three periods to their 10-point final margin. Beare finished with 12 points in the win while guard Elspeth Rodger added 15 rebounds and two blocks. Beare and Indigo Edgington of SMUS were selected to the first and second tournament all-star teams, respectively.
It was the first win for the Blue Jags in three games against the Ice this season and will make SMUS the Island’s No. 1 seed heading into the BC AAA Championship tournament Feb. 25-28 at the Langley Events Centre. The BC Tournament draw will be unveiled live this Wednesday at 7 pm at www.tfsetv.ca
“It was a tremendous team effort for us against a very good and athletic Isfeld team,” said SMUS Head Coach Lindsay Brooke, whose Blue Jags won the BC AA title last season. “We feel good about how we are playing heading into the provincial tournament.”
The Blue Jags got a bye into Friday’s Island Championship semifinal round after Ballenas pulled out of the tournament. Dubé scored 24 points and had nine rebounds and three blocks to lead SMUS to a 54-41 victory over Welington in its semifinal. Edgington added 10 points, Rodger contributed eight points, 14 boards, and four steals, and Beare had six assists and six rebounds for the Jags.
Junior Girls Basketball
The SMUS Junior Girls also captured a Vancouver Island Championship on Saturday night, beating Vanier of Courtenay 45-27 in the final at Shawnigan Lake School.
Grade 9 SMUS point guard Piper Geddes was named MVP of the Island Junior Championship tournament while teammate Natalie DiFelice-Oinonen was selected to the all-star team for the eight-team event. Geddes scored 15 points in the championship game while DiFelice-Oinonen and Ali Brooks added nine points apiece.
Geddes, who was also MVP of the previous weekend’s Lower Island tournament, scored 20 points to lift the Junior Blue Jags to a 50-40 win over Isfeld in an Island semifinal on Friday night. Earlier that same day, SMUS defeated Ballenas 59-30 behind 15 points from DiFelice-Oinonen and 11 points from Geddes.
The Blue Jags now move on as the Island’s No. 1 seed to the 44th annual BC Junior Girls tournament, beginning this Thursday in New Westminster. The Junior Girls have been seeded eighth overall for the provincial tournament and will play the winner of Walnut Grove (#9) and Hazelton (#24) in their first game on Thursday at 4:30pm.
“All season long, our goal was to win Islands and make BCs,” said SMUS Head Coach Tina Lum. “I’m happy for the girls for achieving that and excited to see how we do at the provincial championships.”
Senior Boys Basketball
The SMUS Senior Boys will take on the Gulf Islands Scorpions in their quarterfinal game of the Vancouver Island AA Basketball Championship tournament this Thursday at Shawnigan Lake School. The game will tip off at 3:45 pm.
The Blue Jags, the South Island No. 2 seed in the eight-team Island draw, will meet the winner of St. Andrew’s and Highland in a Friday semifinal if they can get past Gulf Islands in their opener.
The other side of the draw features South Island No. 1 Pacific Christian playing Ladysmith and Parkland taking on host Shawnigan Lake. The two Island finalists will qualify for the BC AA Championship, although the third-place Island finisher can challenge the second-place finisher if the two teams haven’t met previously in the tournament.
The Blue Jags finished 6-2 in Lower Island AA league play this season, behind Pacific Christian at 7-1. In the Lower Island playoff final last Thursday at Mount Douglas, Pacific Christian beat SMUS 85-58 to earn the top South Island seed. Senior guard Will Bateson scored 27 points, including seven three-pointers, in that loss for SMUS while guard Dani Pelyhe added 13 points.
The SMUS Senior lineup, which has been shorthanded much of the season, will be bolstered by several members of the Junior Boys team, which was eliminated in its Island tournament this past weekend.
Grade 9 Boys Basketball
The talented SMUS Grade 9 Boys will begin their quest for a Vancouver Island Championship this Tuesday at 2 pm against Brentwood College. The eight-team Island tournament is being hosted by Oak Bay on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Blue Jags have only one loss to a Grade 9 team this season and have not been defeated by a Vancouver Island Grade 9 team. Other squads in the Island Championship tournament include Quamichan, Vanier, host Oak Bay, Isfeld, Cumberland, and Belmont.
The winner of the Brentwood-SMUS quarterfinal will go on to face the winner of Belmont and Cumberland in a semifinal. That semifinal will tip off on Tuesday at 8 pm.
The final of the tournament goes Wednesday at 4 pm. The top three Island teams advance to the BC Grade 9 Championship tournament, which will be hosted Feb. 26 to March 1 by Lord Byng and Kitsilano secondary schools in Vancouver.
Junior Boys Basketball
The SMUS Junior Boys Basketball team was one win away from qualifying for the BC Championship tournament this past weekend in Courtenay but fell just short.
The Junior Jags’ season ended in heartbreak on Saturday morning with a tough 68-67 loss to Nanaimo District Secondary in a game that decided one of the final two Vancouver Island berths for the BC tournament.
SMUS led most of the game and had a seven-point advantage more than half-way through the final quarter but couldn’t hold off the deeper and more determined Islanders as the Island Championship tournament concluded at Vanier Secondary.
Guard Manav Kang led the Jags with 33 points, including a three-pointer that tied the game in the final minute. Backcourt mate Alex MacKay added 26 points for SMUS, including five threes. But a handful of costly SMUS errors and some key plays by the Islanders enabled them to stage the late comeback. A single made free-throw by Nanaimo with less than 10 seconds left provided the Islanders with the final edge. The Blue Jags grabbed the rebound and raced upcourt but an attempted game-winning jumper by Kang was blocked.
With a handful of players sick and nursing some injuries, the Blue Jags certainly were not at their best for the Island Junior tournament. But they put themselves in a promising position to earn a BC berth with a dramatic 45-40 win over Dover Bay in their opener on Thursday. Guard Evan Pressello, who enjoyed a strong tournament, scored 13 points and provided terrific defence to lead the Jags to that win while Kang added 12 points.
In its first shot at securing a BC berth, SMUS fell 56-34 to a deserving Isfeld squad in Friday night’s Island semifinal. Only Kang hit double figures for the Junior Jags in that game with 11 points. SMUS opened the first quarter in strong fashion but gave up runs of 12-1 and 13-0 before the end of the half as Isfeld pulled away on the strength of eight first-half three-pointers.
The losses to Isfeld and Nanaimo unfortunately ended a solid season for the Jags, who went 21-10 overall, 8-2 in the Lower Island league, and made the finals of three tournaments, including the previous weekend’s Lower Island final. It was a significant improvement over the previous season, when most of these same players lost in a play-in game prior to the Lower Island tournament.
Several of the Junior Jags will now join the Senior Boys team as it attempts to qualify for the BC AA Championship tournament during the Island tournament this coming weekend.
