The York House Tigers earned fifth spot Saturday at the B.C. Secondary School Girls AA Basketball Championships with a nail-biting 49-47 redemption win over the Vernon Panthers.
The Panthers knocked off the Tigers in the quarterfinals of the B.C.s last year (51 to 40) en route to a second place finish while the Tigers settled for sixth.
The No. 9-ranked Tigers got off to a shaky start in the game at the Langley Events Centre.
The No. 6 ranked Panthers scored first and seemed to intimidate the Tigers players who spent the first on the defensive and couldn’t seem to find the net.
Vernon was up 10 to 5 at the end of the first quarter.
Head coach Brandon Chan said the girls were nervous in the first 10 minutes.
“A little bit jittery,” said Chan.
But the Tigers players found confidence — and the net — in the second quarter.
Grade 12, 5’ 6” guard Maddy Baker, who was a team top scorer with 12 points total, opened the second quarter with a two-pointer, which seemed to help the team find its legs.
York House clawed its way into the lead.
Excellent defence from 5’5” Tigers’ guard Emma Swaffield kept the Panthers from effectively answering back.
In total York House had 18 steals on the game while Vernon had seven.
A two-pointer at the buzzer by Tigers’ 5’8” forward Laura Worsley made the score 27 to 22 for York House at the half.
Experience and a deeper bench kicked in for the Tigers on the hardwood in the second half.
Though this was Chan’s first year as head coach, assistant coach Jesseca Eng is a former member of the Tigers (2007-2010) who racked up eight points for York House in the final quarter of the 2010 final game when York House won gold at the B.C.s.
Seven of York House’s 15 girls were also at the Big Dance last year. Tigers’ 5’7” Grade 11 forward Manpreet Deol said this year she took on more of a leadership role in the finals.
“Our entire team has grown since last year,” she said.
Though Vernon had the bigger players, York House had 15 players on its roster to Vernon’s 11.
The most any player was on the court for York House was 35 minutes (Swaffield). Most Tigers players were out for closer to 20 minutes.
The Panthers had one player out on the court the whole game (Anna Rice) and five players out over 20.
Thanks to the team’s deeper bench, York House started to wear Vernon down in the third.
The Tigers’ passing also picked up in the third, putting the team ahead by 13 points midway through the quarter, but Vernon’s gutsy team refused to roll over and play dead.
Thanks to the fierce play of players like Vernon’s Grade 10 5’6” guard Rice, who counted five points in the third, Vernon was within seven points of the Tigers at the end of the third quarter (40 to 33).
The entire last quarter was an intense back and forth volley of scoring and foul shots by both teams.
With two minutes to go, the score was tied 44 to 44.
But the Tigers took the lead in the final minute with the help of a foul shot point by Deol to make it 48 to 47 and then Swaffield closed the deal with a foul shot point just seconds from the final buzzer.
After the game Swaffield reflected on her team’s accomplishment.
“In the end it really just came down to heart, she said.
The win was a perfect grad present for the four seniors on the team including Baker, who earned second team All Star.
“It feels great,” she said. “because it is the last chance we will get to do it.”
York House has finished in the top six of the provincials for the last 16 consecutive years.
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