The Walnut Grove Gators senior girls basketball proved why they sit second in the 3A provincial rankings this weekend at the Timberwolves Classic.
The Langley-based school won all four games they competed in at the Robert Bateman Secondary School hosted event, capturing the tournament title with a 90-71 win over the Yale Lions in Saturday night’s final.
Tavia Rowell, who scored 35 points in the final game, was named the tournament’s most valuable player.
Tournament MVP Tavia Rowell and First Team All Stars Jessica and Sophia Wisotzki. pic.twitter.com/9GCm4ENyiX
— WGSS (@sd35wgss) January 27, 2019
Walnut Grove also posted wins over Sardis on Thursday, G.W. Graham on Friday and the host Bateman Timberwolves (82-65) earlier on Saturday.
The Lions, who sit seventh overall in the 3A provincial rankings, also had a strong tournament. Yale opened with a 94-45 win over Charles Best on Thursday, then defeated Lord Tweedsmuir 101-63 on Friday, and took down Brookswood 80-55 in Saturday’s semi-final. Lions star Tana Pankratz collected 24 points in that game.
Yale Sr. Girls top Brookswood 80-55 in the semi-finals of the Timberwolves Classic! Tana Pankratz led the way with 24 pts.
Finals at 8:30PM tonight vs Walnut Grove at Bateman! @BCHoopGirls @BatemanBball @YaleLions
— Yale Lions BBall (@YaleBasketball) January 26, 2019
The host Timberwolves also had a strong showing, as they posted wins over Whistler (77-44) on Thursday and Unity (58-45) on Friday, before falling to the eventual champions on Saturday.
The 10-player all tournament team featured Yale’s Pankratz and Karishma Rai, along with Bateman’s Jayden Gill and Kayla Wilford.
Both the W.J. Mouat Hawks and MEI Eagles also had solid showings at the tournament, as each club opened the tournament with losses, but followed up with two wins.
Video by: Joshua Watkins/Black Press
