It wasn’t the kind of start the South Delta Sun Devils were hoping for in their long-awaited return to the provincial senior girls basketball stage.
Making their first appearance at the showcase tournament in 17 years, the Sun Devils fell 75-58 to Abbotsford’s Yale Lions on Wednesday night at the B.C. AAAA Championships at the Langley Events Centre.
They will continue play on the consolation side of the 16-team event against North Peace (Fort St. John) on Thursday afternoon and still can finish as high as ninth with wins over the next three days.
Coming off a thrilling victory at the South Fraser Championships 11 days earlier, Sun Devils head coach Sharon Butler knew exactly what an opening round win would have meant for her young team.
Not only would a top eight finish be secured, but the guarantee of playing four highly competitive games in a tournament that sees the talent level drop off considerably in the bottom half of the seeding, so much so that South Delta’s 17-point loss was the second lowest margin of victory on opening day.
Butler knew her team was in tough against a Yale team that was ranked as high as sixth before being upset by Abbotsford in the Eastern Valley playoffs. Still, it was anyone’s game early in the third quarter when MacKenzie Campbell drained her third three-pointer of the night to pull South Delta within 33-30.
That’s when the Lions took over, going on a 10-0 run as their perimeter shooting began to heat up. Butler called a timeout to slow the momentum but Yale found it again to close out the quarter on another big run (11-2) to make it 57-38 and the game was all but over.
Butler said it wasn’t the Lions’ shooting that did her team in, rather its own tentativeness.
“I thought we were out rebounded and we got beat up and down the court. I don’t know if the girls were nervous but we weren’t boxing out and we were missing layups that we don’t miss," she said.
“When it comes down to it, it’s a simple game. Rebound. Make lay-ups and hit free throws. That’s all it is. I do think we could be the better team but tonight they were much better than we were. We simply got beat.”
Campbell had a terrific game in a losing cause with 17 points, including five three-pointers while playing the entire 40 minutes. Kaija Rutledge also had 17 and Kira Denney chipped in with 10.
