The Credo Christian Kodiaks had hoped to successfully defend their provincial title from 2017 but came up one game short.
“There were some tears,” admitted Credo coach Kayla Vanderhorst. “They were quite disappointed.”
The Kodiaks were competing at the B.C. Single A senior girls basketball championships, which were held at Chilliwack’s Unity Christian and Abbotsford’s Columbia Bible College.
And after winning their first two games, 100-32 over Valemount and 75-24 over Pemberton, the Kodiaks found themselves in tough against Kelowna Christian in the semifinals.
The Kodiaks rallied from three points down at the half to lead 40-38 with 10 minutes to go, but the Knights outscored Credo 22-11 in the fourth quarter for the 60-51 victory.
Vanderhorst said her team just did not have their best effort in the game while Kelowna Christian played very well.
In the gold medal game, Unity Christian — a team Credo beat in three out of five matchups, including in their last meeting in the Fraser Valley championship final — won easily, 60-38.
The Kodiaks were relegated to the third-place game on Saturday. They shook off their disappointment to capture the bronze medal with a 66-47 win over Mulgrave School.
“Going into Saturday, a big deal for me was making sure they were going to be able to come back from that,” Vanderhorst said.
Credo Christian was down 16-13 after one quarter before outscoring Mulgrave 53-31 the rest of the way.
The Kodiaks used a balanced attack as they had six players contribute offensively, and all were within the nine to 14-point range.
“We always say we can sub anyone in off the bench and will have a strong team on the court,” Vanderhorst said.
Two Kodiaks did earn all-star recognition with Alisa Stam making the first team while Sam Leyenhorst was a second team selection.
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