A wacky and wonderful season of girls basketball at St. Thomas Aquinas ended with the second provincial championship in as many weeks as the Fighting Saints claimed the junior provincial crown at Langley Events Centre Saturday.
The STA juniors finished off a stretch of four games in four days with a decisive 49-27 over the Kelowna Owls in the championship final.
“I’m so proud of them,” said head coach John Prescott. “Kid after kid stepped up and played better than they’ve ever played.”
The win followed a victory for the school’s juvenile team at the Grade 9 provincial championship tournament held the week before in Vancouver. The two teams did share some common threads, most prominently a six-foot-two dynamo who earned MVP honours in both tournaments. Jessica Clarke, who as a December baby is one of the youngest members of the Grade 9 class, followed up her lead performance at the Grade 9 championships by leading the juniors to victory last week. Clarke scored 15 points in the junior final against Kelowna, a team that had beaten STA earlier this season.
“She’s pretty good,” said Prescott with a laugh. “She’s a good kid too. … Jessica has developed so much over the course of the last year. On her Grade 9 team she obviously has a very strong presence inside but she was also counted on throughout the course of the year to handle the ball a lot too. She’s developing into an outside player as well. In this tournament here it was her inside presence – her rebounding and her ability to post up – that really paid dividends. But there were a few times that she was taking the ball down the floor and dribbling behind her back and looking pretty impressive. And taking some outside shots too. Her game is really rounding out nicely.”
Clarke teamed up with her sister, five-foot-11 Grade 10 forward Rebecca Clarke, to form a formidable frontcourt for the Fighting Saints.
“They just had a high-low combination that people couldn’t stop,” said Prescott. “Rebecca would get it in the high post and then she’d look for her little sister – well, younger sister – in the low post, and teams just couldn’t figure out a way to stop that.”
Rebecca was named a first-team all-star at the junior tournament while point guard Olivia Thorpe, playing in pain on a sprained ankle, picked up second team all-star status. Prescott also cited the constant presence of Stephanie Bordingnon who played huge minutes for the team and was a standout on both ends of the floor.
Making STA’s Grade 9 and junior double knockout even more interesting is the fact that the school didn’t field a senior girls team at all this season.
“You just have the ebb and flow of interest,” said Prescott. “Sometimes you have people who are really passionate about band and music theatre and things. So this year’s Grade 11s and 12s, we just didn’t have enough.”
That should change next year as the Clarkes come up to senior and bring their talented teammates with them.
“They’ll be a young senior team but I think they’ll be very competitive,” said Prescott. “We’re all very excited about it. We have an incredibly supportive administration, it’s been a huge part of the program growing. Our parents are all in, coaches in the school are all enthusiastic.”
• • •
The Seycove Seyhawks also took part in the junior provincial championships, posting a 3-2 record to finish in seventh place.
