Just days ago, British Columbia's U17 Women's team seemed done and out of the Canada Games after consecutive losses to open the tournament. Today they topped Alberta 56-41 in their semifinal match and have momentum going into the final match where they're guranteed at least a silver medal.

The team from BC won with their suberb interior presence of Lauren Yearwood (19 points, eight rebounds, three blocks) and Tayla Jackson (11 points, three rebounds, two blocks). BC scored more points in the paint and grabbed more rebounds over an undersized, but scrappy Alberta squad. BC also had long-range weapon Jessica Brown contribute 14 points including four three-pointers.

"It feels really good to be moving on to the finals and I thought we worked really well as a team," said Brown after the match. "Everyone worked as hard as they could including the team cheering from the bench. We really just took it one game at a time, but we thought we could beat Alberta."

Despite dropping their opening match of the Canada Games 47-41 to Alberta, BC played like a different team than they were a week ago and were the better team on this night. Kacie Bosch continued to be a bright spot for Alberta scoring 16 points and grabbing seven rebounds and will be key for the team when they play Manitoba for bronze tomorrow.

Ontario continued to dominate all competition in the first half of their semifinal match. Though Manitoba played effective defence, Ontario still notched 31 points in the first half while Manitoba struggled to score, putting just 14 points on the board in the first half.

"Coming into this we were twelve individuals but we all had one goal," said Ontario guard Shay Colley after the game. "We wanted to get gold and this is where we need to be. Tomorrow we just have to go out there and play Ontario basketball and execute the coaches plan. We have great, great coaches in this province."

In other consolation action Newfoundland beat PEI 64-53 to claim ninth place, Nova Scotia beat Quebec 60-53 and will play for fifth place tomorrow against Saskatchewan who defeated New Brunswick 62-50. The match for seventh place will take place between Quebec and New Brunswick.

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