The tantalizing prospect of a crosstown final at the BC High School AAAA girls basketball championships is a step closer.
Port Coquitlam’s Riverside Rapids and Terry Fox Ravens each advanced to Friday’s semifinals with dominating victories in Thursday’s round of eight at the Langley Events Centre (LEC).
Top ranked Riverside beat #9 Claremont Spartans 90-48 in their quarter-final.
Grade 10 guard Avery Sussex lead all Rapids’ scorers with 23 points.
She was capably supported by five teammates who all hit double figures: Venice Davignon scored 15, Natalie Curley had 12, and Brooke Kendall, Alexis Hart and Jorja Hart, all scored 11.
Riverside never trailed. The Rapids lead 28-10 after the first quarter and 58-26 at half time. The team shot 48.7 per cent from the floor and hit more than 73 per cent of its free throw attempts.
Earlier, Terry Fox — ranked third in the tournament — defeated #6 Abbotsford Panthers, 94-49.
Lauren Clements scored 22 points and pulled down seven offensive rebounds to lead the Ravens, while Cerys Merton scored 29 and had 9 rebounds.
Fox, which never trailed, led 44-27 at half time, then really turned it on the third quarter, outscoring the Panthers 37-11
Riverside will next play the winner of Thursday’s final game of the night between Walnut Grove and Sir Winston Churchill.
Fox faces Okanagan Mission in Friday’s late semifinal. The second-ranked Huskies dispatched Yale, 75-53 in their quarter-final.
If the two Port Coquitlam schools win their respective semifinals, they’ll face each other in Saturday’s final in a reprise of the championship game of the Tsumura Invitational last December as well as the Fraser North regional finale. Riverside won both times — 90-79 at the Tsumura and 89-76 in the regional championship.
