The Columbia Bible College Bearcats have caught fire at the perfect time at the 2025 CCAA Women's Basketball Championship in New Brunswick and after two wins they play for a national title on Saturday (March 15).
The Bearcats upset the highly-ranked SAIT Trojans 63-55 on Thursday (March 13) in the semifinal to qualify for Saturday's gold medal game.
CBC's Elissa Vreugdenhil scored a team-high 18 points and grabbed 14 rebounds to help the Bearcats earn the win. Bearcats forward Madeline Beerwald added 13 points and 11 rebounds. CBC held the Trojans to just 26.3 per cent shooting and won the rebound battle 48-39.
"It's incredible," Vreugdenhil said after the game, noting that SAIT was ranked second in the country. "Our team really came together and is peaking at the right time. We've worked so hard and it's really come together."
Vregedenhil said that the team has a very tight bond and that they have managed to overcome all the adversity they have faced this season.
The Bearcats face the Calgary-based St. Mary's Lightning in Saturday's final. Tip-off for that game is set for 3 p.m. Abbotsford time. They finished behind SAIT in the ACAC standings and posted a conference record of 16-5.
The Lightning are led by CCAA player of the year Maitlynn Miller, who averaged 18.2 points, 8.2 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 5.1 steals per game this season. She shot 43.8 per cent from the field in 2024-25.
CBC opened the tournament with a 67-61 win over Géants de Saint-Jean on Wednesday (March 12). Bearcats guard Kagari Tomita led all players with 24 points in that win.
The Bearcats are competing in the tournament without head coach Taylor Claggett, who was removed from the bench following an investigation into an incident involving the VIU Mariners in October. She has not been present behind the bench for the team since February.
Assistant coaches Alexis Worrell and Victoria Jacobse have been handling coaching duties in Claggett's absence. The trip to nationals is a remarkable turnaround for a program that had never won a Pacwest playoff game prior to this season. The team also suffered through a 54-game Pacwest losing streak that stretched from 2018 to 2023.
The Mariners also qualified for the event, but opened with a loss and the best they can now hope for is third place.
For more on the event, visit ccaa.ca/sports/wbkb/championship/index.
