The Riverside Rapids were two points away from punching their ticket to the AAA girls high school basketball Top Ten Shootout tournament last weekend but ran out of time in the semifinal game against Seycove secondary.
The team battled hard for most of the game but when the clock ran out they were down 71-69, missing out on a chance to take home the top prize.
Instead, the top-ranked club had to settle for third place, defeating the Kelowna secondary Owls 79-72 in a conciliation game on Saturday afternoon.
Seycove moved on to the finals, where the squad was routed in a 104-41 loss against Brookswood secondary.
The Rapids got off to a strong start at the tournament, defeating New Westminster secondary 74-40 in Game 1 on Thursday before downing Panorama Ridge secondary 77-60 the next day. That set the stage for the semifinal loss to Seycove, which took place later on Friday, before the bronze medal game on Saturday.
Rapids players Shae Sanchez was named to the first team all stars for the tournament.
Centennial secondary and Dr. Charles Best secondary also had teams in the tournament.
Best struggled in the tournament opener, falling to Oak Bay secondary 68-55, but bounced back with a 59-46 win over the Centennial Centaurs later in the day.
Another win over Claremont secondary on Friday set up a battle for ninth place against W.J. Mouat, which Best won 70-56. Shanto Borrego was given honourable mention all-star recognition at the end of the tournament.
Meanwhile, the Centaurs struggled throughout the tournament, falling to Kelowna 83-41 before the loss to Best last Thursday. Centennial fell again 67-37 against Churchill secondary before winning its final game against MEI secondary 59-58 for a 15th place finish.
