The South Delta Sun Devils will need all hands on deck as the high school girls basketball season hits the home stretch and they look to earn their first provincial tournament berth in 16 years.
It was back in December when the Sun Devils cracked the provincial rankings and reached as high as No. 7 after a surprising fourth place finish at the Howard Tsumura Invitational. The team has since been getting a steady diet of play in, what has turned out to be, a highly-competitive Sur-Del AAAA Tier One League.
South Delta dropped a hard-fought 62-61 home court battle to the Seaquam Seahawks on Jan. 18. Then, a week later, fell 65-59 to the Fleetwood Park Dragons. Those results helped the Seahawks and Dragons move past the Sun Devils in the latest B.C. AAAA rankings with the teams not slated to face each other again until the South Fraser Championships (Feb. 23 to 26).
By then, the hope is SDSS coach Sharon Butler’s squad will be at full strength as it has dealt with a number of injuries during the past month.
Among them is key Grade 12 guard Alexa Kusel who has been sidelined with an ankle injury. The future member of the Capilano University Blues is expected to be ready for the playoffs, which will give South Delta another ball handler against pressing teams.
Butler has plenty of younger players contributing this season including Kaija Rutledge and Kira Denney combining for 53 points in a 69-65 exhibition win over No. 4 AA ranked Mulgrave last month. Rutledge, who is just in Grade 10, had 32 points, going 4-for-5 from three-point range. She also added eight rebounds and four block shots. Denney, a Grade 11 forward had 21 points and five rebounds.
The pair also combined for 55 points in the loss to Seaquam, including 32 for Rutledge.
Two other Grade 11s, forwards Rachel Rosser and Mackenzie Campbell, are also providing key minutes as the volleyball standouts have rounded into basketball form.
South Delta sits 3-2 in league play thanks to wins over North Surrey (67-32), Panorama Ridge (70-51) and Semiahmoo (71-52).
At the buzzer...
South Delta senior boys improved to 3-2 in South Fraser AAAA Southwest League play with a 81-59 win over Panorama Ridge on Tuesday. League playoffs are slated to start the week of Feb. 14.
