The Pitt Meadows Marauders senior girls have a shot at playing in the double A provincial basketball championships, after placing third as hosts of the Fraser Valleys tournament last week.
Only the top two teams from the tournament move on to the provincials, but the Marauders have won their way into a playoff game. They take on Whistler on Tuesday night in West Vancouver, with the winner moving on to the B.C. tournament.
They opened the Fraser Valley tournament with a tough 74-70 loss to Maple Ridge Samuel Robertson Technical on Thursday.
“We had to come through the back door, and won some very exciting games,” said coach Kevin Severinski.
But they bounced back from that opening loss with a big 85-50 win over the Langley Fundamental Titans on Friday. Vanessa Lagrange, who was named a first team all-star in the tournament, put the Marauders on her back – she scored 27 points in the first half alone – to carry Pitt Meadows back into the final four.
LaGrange finished that game with 41 points, and had 119 points in four tournament games.
That win brought a Saturday date with Southridge of Surrey, a dramatic 74-73 victory, and a spot in the bronze medal game.
Southridge, the eighth-ranked team in B.C., was up by five with a minute left to play. But the Marauders closed the gap, and Kristi Browne, who came off the bench to play a big final minute grabbed the ball out of a scramble and “calm as a cucumber” nailed the winning basket with 1.7 seconds left.
On Sunday, Pitt met St. John Brebeuf of Abbotsford, and beat them 80-73 to take third place.
There was drama, as that game went into overtime, and the elite Lagrange fouled out – she only played about two minutes of the second half.
Paige Dunn-Apeldoorn nailed a trey with six seconds on the clock to send the game to overtime.
Ajanee Perdue led the scoring with 23 points and had 16 rebounds.
Chantelle Zinger was also prominent with 16 points and 15 rebounds, and went five-for-five from the freethrow line down the stretch.
Zinger was named to the second all-star team, as was Rylee Dickson of SRT.
The Titans beat the North Delta Huskies 77-43 to get inot the event on Feb. 8, and then beat the host Pitt Meadows. But they ran into a tough G.W. Graham squad on Friday, and lost 81-36.
That brought a Saturday game against St. John Brebeuf on Saturday night, with the winner moving on to the final four, and SRT lost 61-42.
A dominant Langley Christian team won the tournament, beating G.W. Graham in the final by a score of 71-65. The most valuable player was Hailey VonRoekel of Langley Christian.
The BC Secondary School Girls Basketball Championships will be held on Feb. 27 to March 2 at the Langley Events Centre.
Severinski noted that this could be the last Fraser Valley championship hosted at Pitt Meadows, as girls basketball will be moving to a new format next season.