The Maple Ridge Ramblers have won their way into the provincial championships, with a third-place finish at the Fraser Valley Grade 9 girls’ basketball tournament last week.
On Thursday, the Ramblers won the bronze-medal game against their arch rivals from Heritage Park by a score of 35-27.
Paige Johnson, playing post, led the way with 12 points in the game, while Ella Todd, Maggie Hampton and Jamie Perry each had six, including big free-throws to put the game away in the last minute.
Johnson was chosen to the tournament all-star team.
“The teams were pretty close,” said Ramblers head coach Jason Hampton.
His team lost to the eventual Fraser Valley champions, Abbotsford Traditional, in the semi-final on Wednesday in a game that could have gone either way. The final was 29-22 for Abbotsford.
In their first game of the tournament, the Ramblers beat Rick Hansen secondary of Abbotosford 27-23.
“We played awesome defence – and that’s our identity,” said Hampton. “They kids played really hard.”
Hampton said Maple Ridge secondary is rebuilding its girls’ basketball program, and this experience at the provincials will be a great step in that process.
The provincials are being held at Heritage Woods secondary in Port Moody beginning on Thursday. The Ramblers will open against Dover Bay at 2:30 p.m. The championship game is scheduled for Saturday at 3 p.m.
• The Pitt Meadows Marauders senior girls bowed out of the playoffs, losing a playoff game that would have sent them to the provincial championships, against Whistler by a score of 58-45.
Coach Kevin Severinski said the lead was only five points through most of the second half, but his team did not have its best effort of the season, calling it “a bad game to go out on.”
Chantel Zinger led the way with 13 points.
Marauders Vanessa Lagrange faced double teams, and had a season low eight points.
Lagrange will be back to lead a team that could challenge for a provincial title next season, as Severinski said about half of his team will be eligible to return.
“We will be really good next year,” he predicted, adding the team had a lot of success this season, just coming up short in a tough process to qualify for provincials, which saw them finish third in the Fraser Valley.