Iyin Aina of the Sa-Hali Sabres. (Image Credit: CFJC Today / Anthony Corea)

By Marty Hastings

On the court

Sabres aim to surprise at high school hoops provincials; Vikes relishing B.C. championship experience

Feb 24, 2026 | 4:13 PM

KAMLOOPS — Iyin Aina of the Sa-Hali Sabres remembers well the pain of 2025, a one-point loss to the Mennonite Educational Institute Eagles of Abbotsford in the AAA B.C School Sports Girls Basketball Championship final.

“We have a lot to prove,” Aina said. “But we’re not going to take what happened last year and let that wreck our confidence. We’re ready to come back – and come back stronger.”

The Sa-Hali Sabres and Valleyview Vikes are ranked seventh and ninth, respectively, for the 2026 provincial championship tournament, which is scheduled to get underway on Wednesday (Feb. 25) at Langley Events Centre.

“We feel we’re better than that ranking,” Sabres’ head coach Jody Vosper said, noting 10 girls from the 2025 silver-medal-winning team are on the roster this season.

LOOPED IN

LOOPED IN WITH NIKKI OMEN: March 5, 2026

9h ago

SOUND OFF

SOUND OFF: Supporting British Columbians through the Strategic Investment Fund

18h ago

SOUND OFF

SOUND OFF: TRU professor's perspective does not reflect that of Kamloops' Iranian community

Mar 04, 2026

“We’ve had some top players out with injury and when we lost to teams that are ahead of us, we never had our full healthy team.”

Sa-Hali proved earlier this month in the Okanagan Valley Championship it has the chops to write a Cinderella story at provincials.

The Vernon Panthers – ranked No. 1 in B.C. – were tied with the Sabres with less than a minute to play in the gold-medal game before pulling away to win 68-64.

“We’ve been in a lot of close games this past season, just learning what to do in those situations,” Grade 12 Sabre Kirsten Conroy said. “Our coach is super all about being together, playing together and having fun, too. That’s something that we’re definitely rooted in.”

Sa-Hali will square off against No. 10 Little Flower Academy of Vancouver on Wednesday, a 10:00 a.m. start at the LEC.

The Vikes will open their tournament against No. 8 Crofton House of Vancouver, with tip-off slated for 6:15 p.m.

Valleyview has already accomplished its goal for this season of reaching the provincial championship tournament.

The Vikes punched their ticket to the big dance by finishing third at Okanagans.

“We ended up losing to Sa-Hali [in the semifinal round], which is a really good team,” Ava Porlier of the Vikes said. “We were like, guys, this is provincials we’re talking about. We need to win this next game. Like, we just need to win one game. We kind of had some bonding going on and then we came back, we played [South Kamloops Secondary] and we beat them. And yeah, now we’re headed to provincials.”

Valleyview head coach Karen Horsman said she is proud of her team, noting there are no Grade 12s on the roster.

“It was just a lot of the learning curve,” Horsman said. “Lots of perseverance. There were times when we only had six players, so yeah, a lot of tests and they passed those tests and now we’re going to provincials.”

The experience logged this week in Langley will be valuable next season, when the Vikes’ roster will be loaded with experienced Grade 12s.

“Our main thing is we know we’re going to have some tough competition and we’re going to use it to our advantage,” Peyton Adanski of Valleview said. “We’re going to play our hardest, we’re not going to give up and having that to build on for next year is going to be really beneficial.”