The first day of the 2024 Tsumura Basketball Invitational brought some incredible action to the Langley Events Centre, with one Abbotsford team doing particularly well.
MEI, Yale, and Rick Hansen all sent teams to the annual province-wide basketball tournament in Langley, with MEI being the first Abbotsford team to hit the court.
In their opening match, MEI tried to put a stop to St. Thomas More Collegiate's top scorers, but were unable to score enough baskets of their own, falling to St. Thomas More Collegiate by a final score of 91-68.
However, it wasn't all bad news for MEI, with the team able to rebound quite successfully and grind out an 81-63 win against Heritage Woods in their very next game.
Yale had a real nail-biter for their first game, losing to Centennial by only 10 points when the final buzzer sounded. Their next match was extremely close as well, with the Abbotsford squad unfortunately experiencing another loss, this time being 65-52 against Sullivan Heights.
The most success was seen by the Rick Hansen Hurricanes, who started the tournament with a heated back-and-forth competition against Grandview Heights, and were able to pull out the narrow 72-69 win.
Their victory was much more secure in the second match, with the Hurricanes never trailing even once during their game against South Kamloops. A big component in Rick Hansen's win was the perimeter shooting from Harjap Thind, who ended up scoring more than half of the team's points in their 62-54 victory.
With their two wins, the Hurricanes were able to qualify for the semifinals, which take place Friday afternoon.
Rick Hansen's next game will be against Collingwood and takes place at the Langley Events Centre south court at 4:30 p.m. today (Dec. 6).
For more information about the Tsumura Basketball Invitational, visit www.langleyeventscentre.com/tbi.
