BRITANNIA BRUINS WIN 2020 2A GIRLS TITLE

It was a victory for more than just the team.

The Britannia Bruins were down three points with a quarter to play but outscored the Langley Christian Lightning 23-12 over the final 10 minutes to capture the BC Secondary School 2A Girls Championship on Saturday at Langley Events Centre 81-73 in front of a standing room-only crowd of 1,100.

A large chunk of that crowd were supporters for the inner-city Vancouver school.

“It is not just them. It is the whole Downtown Eastside, east side of Vancouver, the kids that go to our feeder schools,” said Britannia coach Mike Evans. “The people who are always trying to get better and often can’t quite make it because of circumstance, so to be champion of something … it is something profound.”

“It means a lot. It represents our Brit community. We were talking in the locker room, we were winning this for our Brit community,” said Shemaiah Abatayo. “We are not winning it for ourselves, we are winning it for the whole community because everyone is so supportive.”

The title was the first for Britannia since winning it all in 2012. The team placed eighth last year while Langley Christian won bronze and they were hoping to capture their first title at the 2A level (they have previously won at the 1A level).

Saturday’s game began great for the top-seeded Lightning as they opened on an 11-2 run although the second-seed Bruins had cut it down to two points by the quarter break. Britannia took a 41-37 lead at the half.

The third quarter saw Langley Christian jump ahead by eight points, but the Bruins had the deficit down three with 10 minutes to play.

The Lightning, however, could not buy a basket in the fourth, hitting just four of their 17 field goal attempts (23.5 per cent) with the Bruins putting up 23 points.

“We worked hard. We gave it our all but we just missed some shots, missed some lay-ups, some easy stuff which would have kept us a little closer down the stretch,” said Lightning coach Danielle Gardner. “That’s just the nature of the game.”

“They have some players who are pretty dynamic, and we were just trying to slow them down and contain them as best as we could.”

Those dynamic players Gardner was referring to where Surprise Munie (30 points and 12 rebounds) and Abatayo (25 points, eight rebounds and seven assists). Abatayo would be named Most Valuable Player while Munie took home the tournament’s Most Outstanding Defensive Player award.

Jewel Leeson added 14 points and four rebounds while post players Tiana Sacco and Lagi Vaa combined for nine points, a dozen rebound and countless tipped balls, which their teammates were able to gather.

Makenna Gardner led the Lightning with 18 points and nine assists while Lainey Shelvey had 13 points and 10 boards and Ava Krepp finished with 17 points and six rebounds.

In the bronze medal game, the York House Tigers defeated the St. Thomas Aquinas Fighting Saints 65-57.

All-Stars and Awards

Nadeen Wu (York House), Jessica Clarke (St. Thomas Aquinas), Sydney Bradshaw (Langley Christian), Gemma Cutler (St. Thomas Aquinas) and Makenna Gardner (Langley Christian) were named First Team All-Stars.

Lainey Shelvey (Langley Christian), Marijke Duralia (St. John Brebeuf), Cassiel Penalosa (St. Thomas More Collegiate), Avery Ratcliffe (York House) and Gigi Gaspar (St. Thomas More Collegiate) were the Second Team All-Stars.

The Prince Charles Bulldogs were named the Most Sportsmanlike Team.