For the coach of a team that just lost a championship basketball game by 52 points, Mike Carkner was pretty upbeat.
His Terry Fox Ravens, comprised largely of Grade 10 players, was soundly thumped by the bigger, more physical Semiahmoo Totems, 114-62, in Saturday’s finale of the BC Secondary Schools AAAA girls basketball championships at the Langley Events Centre.
But sometimes a game is more about the journey than the final result, Carkner said.
“This game was kinda secondary to our season,” he said. “It’s been a bit of a challenge.”
Heading into the campaign, Carkner told The Tri-City News he expected some “speed bumps” for his young squad, many of whom tasted the thrill of victory in last year’s junior championship before they made the decision to step up to the more rigorous demands of senior ball.
Among the speed bumps was the recent relapse of teammate Karin Kuong’s cancer that was first diagnosed at the beginning of her Grade 9 year but had gone into remission. Then, in Friday’s semifinal against the Yale Lions, the team lost star guard-forward Lauren Clements to injury.
Still, Carkner said, his charges battled on.
“They’re just such a competitive, resilient team,” he said.
Despite hanging in the provincial rankings much of the season, and earning the second seed at the provincial tournament after upsetting their Port Coquitlam rivals, Riverside Rapids, to win the Fraser North zone championship, Carkner knew what the Ravens were up against with Semiahmoo, the defending B.C. senior champions that had scored 318 points in its previous three games to get to Saturday’s climax.
“We didn’t expect to win this game,” he said. “We were pretty clear we’re excited to be number two.”
The Totems were full measure to affirm Carkner’s expectations. Semiahmoo led the game for all but one minute and 40 seconds. They had a 28-11 advantage after the first quarter, 66-28 at the half, and were up by as many as 65 points in the third quarter.
The Totems shot 44.4% from the floor, hit 40.9% of its three-point attempts and netted 17 of 21 free throws.
To say the Ravens were overmatched would be an understatement.
But, Carkner said, the experience will serve the players well.
“Hopefully they’ll learn we have to work a little harder in the off season to get to this level,” he said.
Indeed, even as the score against them piled up, Ravens players on the bench rose to cheer every successful drive to the basket and enthusiastically high-fived every teammate that was being spelled off the floor.
“We just wanted them to have fun and enjoy this stage,” Carkner said.
• Cerys Merton led all Terry Fox scorers with 16 points. She also pulled down five rebounds, all of them in the defensive end. Emily Sussez was the only other Raven to score double figures; she had 13 points as well as five rebounds.
The Riverside Rapids finished the tournament in sixth place after a 75-57 loss to the Kelowna Owls on Saturday. The Heritage Woods Kodiaks also lost its final game, 51-49, to Lord Tweedsmuir, to finish eighth.
• The Ravens' Alisha Meloy was selected the tournament's most outstanding defensive player. Merton and Ana-Maria Misic were named to the first all-star team. Riverside's Sammi Shields earned a spot on the second all-star team and Jenna Griffin, of Heritage Woods, won the Quinn Keast scholarship award.
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Read more about the Terry Fox Ravens girls basketball team
Perfection for Terry Fox Ravens junior girls
Terry Fox Run: Student who beat Stage 4 cancer to speak at Hometown run
