A provincial tournament that began with promise ended in heartbreak for the Ballenas senior girls basketball team last weekend in Langley.
The Whalers finished eighth in the 16-team AA Provincial Championships in a 58-56 loss to Windsor Secondary of North Vancouver Saturday. It was the second straight two-point loss for Ballenas to end the tourney.
The unranked Whalers, who qualified for the AA provincial championships at the Vancouver Island champion, posted a 63-53 upset win over Okanagan Mission of Kelowna in opening-round play Wednesday at the Langley Events Centre.
But after being dropped into the consolation round by an 89-64 loss to No. 1-ranked and top-seeded Seycove — the eventual provincial AA champions — Ballenas lost its final two tournament games by a total of four points.
In the consolation semifinals, the Whalers suffered a 77-75 loss to fifth-ranked Immaculata Catholic School of Kelowna Friday.
That put Ballenas in Saturday’s 7th-8th place final against 11th-ranked Windsor of North Vancouver.
The Whalers, seeded 9th in the 16-team provincial tournament, were bidding to match their 7th-place finish in the 2015 provincials. Ballenas was making its third straight appearance in the AA senior girls provincial finals. The school placed 12th in 2016.
Seycove claimed the AA championship Saturday afternoon with a 69-54 win over No. 3 Vernon.
Last weekend’s tourney marked the final high school action for Grade 12s Makayla Hoey and Kate Reynolds. Grade 12 teammate Erica Friesen, who was kept from provincials by a knee injury, was the only other senior in the Ballenas program this year.
— NEWS Staff