The Riverside Rapids came out strong during the AAA high school girls' B.C. Provincial Championships but could not sustain their momentum over the course of the weekend at the Langley Events Centre.
The club, which suffered injuries to several key players in the Fraser Valley play downs, opened the tournament with a decisive victory over Salmon Arm secondary. Riverside took the game 84-69, thanks in large part to the play of Amanda Matsui, a Grade 10 point guard who scored 23 points in the match.
But the club began to falter in the second game when they lost to the W.J. Mouat Hawks 62-48.
Matsui again led her team in scoring, but it was not enough to overcome an early deficit and the strong play of Mouat siblings Alicia and Cierra Roufoose, who combined to score 29 points in the game.
The PoCo club's championship hopes were dealt another blow on Friday, when the team lost to the MEI Eagles 83-76.
Riverside rounded out the tournament with a 61-25 victory over the Fleetwood Park Dragons, good enough for seventh place at the tournament.
On the single-A boys basketball side, the B.C. Christian Academy Panthers of Port Coquitlam took home a bronze medal after defeating the Unity Christian Flames 54-42 in the third-place match.
The top-seeded team opened up the tournament with an 86-42 win over Mount Sentinel before defeating Kelowna Christian 54-40 in the second game.
But the team ran into trouble against the St. Patrick's Celtics on Friday, when they fell 76-62 at the Langley Events Centre in the semifinal.
Kosia Cauw managed to score 32 points for the PoCo club, but it was not enough to overcome the Celtics, whose forward Ivan Sombillo led the game in scoring with 33 points of his own.
That set the stage for Saturday's bronze medal game against Unity Christian.
Johnston Dean led the game in scoring for the Panthers, putting up 22 points in the 54-42 victory.
Meanwhile, the 2014 AAAA boys' provincial championship gets underway this week at the Langley Events Centre with the Gleneagle Talons taking on Prince George in the opener today at 2:45 p.m.
