Unity Christian’s senior girls basketball team has brought home the provincial banner.
The Chilliwack team battled their way through the BC School Sports 1A championships winning all four of their games over the four-day tournament in Langley. That includes a win over their long-time rivals, Credo Christian.
But it all started last Wednesday (Feb. 28), with a strong first game against Meadowridge that ended 73-27 at R.E Mountain. Miah Schuurman led the points with 23, but the whole team rallied to keep the scoreboard busy.
Game two on Thursday saw the Flames burn Kelowna Christian, with a final score of 60-33. Again, Schuurman had a strong game, collecting 29 of those points but with plenty of support from the rest of the bench.
They faced Credo for the semi-final on Friday, and just edged them out for a 49-37 victory.
“Credo is always a mental block for us; we have been battling with them for years,” said Unity Christian head coach Kyle Smiens about his team’s previous lack of success against Credo Christian. “But I think we were hungry for this and we just had to re-focus for today (Friday).”
And then on Saturday afternoon, the girls played well in front of a boisterous crowd on centre court at Langley Events Centre, and won the final game with a score of 85-73 over Victoria’s Pacific Christian Pacers.
“Every game she does something special and then the next game, she tops that,” said Smiens. “She has a mindset of ‘I am going to take over when I need to.’ It is really nice to have her on our team.”
G.W. Graham also competed at the provincials, in the 4A division. They won their first game against Charles Best on Feb. 28, 68-54. But their next three games ended in narrow losses against Seaquam (60-87), Argyle (79-95) and finally Kelowna (68-73). They finished in eighth place, out of 16 teams from across the province.
Seaquam won that division in a final against Riverside.
The boys basketball provincials are next up on the high school sports calendar, in Langley beginning March 6. Unity Christian’s boys start their tournament with a game against Fort St. James, at 7:45 p.m. at the Langley Events Centre.
Full scores and recaps can be found at www.bchighschoolbasketballchampionships.com.
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