LANGLEY TOWNSHIP — Welcome to Day 1 of the 2026 B.C. senior boys Quad-A basketball championship, coming to you from the Langley Events Centre.
Please check back here regularly as our team of writers provide first-hand game coverage from the eight sudden-elimination games being contested at this tier.
Thanks for your loyalty!
Howard Tsumura
NO. 7 SEMIAHMOO 54 NO. 10 TERRY FOX 48
By DAN KINVIG (Special for Varsity Letters)
LANGLEY — If beautiful, free-flowing, high-scoring basketball is your passion, Wednesday evening’s clash between the Semiahmoo Thunderbirds and Terry Fox Ravens was probably not your cup of tea.
But if you enjoy watching absurdly large human beings crash into each other, battling tooth and nail for every inch of space, contesting every rebound as though lives depended on it? Go find this game tape.
In the end, it was No. 7 Semiahmoo surviving an absolute slugfest by a 54-48 score, and our advice to their next opponents? Buckle up.
“It’s always ugly,” Thunderbirds head coach Les Brown said with a grin afterward. “This is our third time playing Terry Fox at the B.C.’s in four years, and it’s always a grind. We struggle to score, they struggle to score, and it’s always a back-and-forth battle, always close. Richie (Chambers, Fox head coach) does a great job with his group. They play hard, we play hard – very similar teams.”
Indeed, familiarity may have bred some contempt in this match-up. In 2023, Semi defeated Fox 89-56 in the provincial quarter-finals; in 2025, it was Fox turning the tables with an 84-82 first-round triumph.
The 2026 rubber match was a back-and-forth battle, with points at an absolute premium. Semi led by as many as seven points in the first half and took a 28-24 lead into the break. Midway through the third quarter, the Thunderbirds’ lead was 32-30, and you started to wonder if either of these teams would crack the 50-point barrier. The play in the paint was epic, as Fox’s 6-foot-8 Grade 11 centre Maksym Cichecki clashed with a pair of Semi players who could look him in the eye – senior Oscar Antscherl and Grade 11 Adam MacKay.
Amongst the bone-rattling physical play, the sportsmanship was heartwarming – players regularly helped opponents off the floor during stoppages. But perhaps that was just a product of volume – there were a LOT of players to be picked up off the floor, and somebody had to do it, no?
Semiahmoo managed an 8-0 run early in the fourth quarter, stretching what had been a two-point lead to double digits. And given how hard it had been to score, the 10-point lead felt twice as large.
Fox stuck with it, though, with buckets from Cichecki and Diego Rodrigues Castro in quick succession to force a timeout. The Thunderbirds answered with a bucket from Antscherl in transition, and a Matthew Blagdon trey stretched the lead to 52-46 with less than a minute left in regulation. From there, the Surrey squad was able to hit enough free throws to keep Fox at bay.
“We lost to Terry Fox in the first round last year, and there was a lot of, I don’t want to say animosity, but a lot of emotion coming into this game,” said Semiahmoo senior guard Jack Snead, whose 15 points tied MacKay for team-high honours. “We know they’re a physical team, we know the guys they have, and we just try to stick to our brand of basketball. We’re very gritty, we’re defensive-minded, and we’ve been here. This is my fourth time at senior provincials, and I know points are hard to come by – it’s defence that wins. We try to show that in our play, and I think we did a good job of that tonight.”
Snead noted that his team relishes the physical play, and makes a point of getting into the weight room together.
“It’s something I feel really feel separates a good player from a great player,” he said. “You can be really good at basketball, but if you’re getting bumped around on the court, there’s nothing you can do about it. We really try to emphasize that, and especially tonight I really thought it showed. We were able to use our physicality to stay solid on on defence and force them to take tough shots, and hey – it got us the win out of it.”
Cichecki’s 16 points were a game-high for the Ravens, Marvin Reyes added 12 points, and Deklan Martin scored nine.
For the Thunderbirds, Philip Potashov joined MacKay and Snead in double digits with 13 points.
“I’m old-school – grew up playing for Richmond High, and that’s how we played,” Brown said.
“We really stress competing in everything – all our drills in all our practices, it’s compete, compete, compete. And when you’re tired, compete some more.”
Compete the Thunderbirds did. And they’ll live to compete another day on the winner’s side of the draw.
NO. 1 DOVER BAY 112 NO. 16 NORTH PEACE 41
By GARY KINGSTON (Special for Varsity Letters)
LANGLEY – Markus Menzyk pops out of the Dover Bay Dolphins dressing room with a nervous smile. He’s a bit shy and a kid of relatively few words.
As a Grade 9, who only joined the senior boys basketball team a month before the Quad A provincial championships, he probably never envisioned that a writer would want to interview him.
But after the No. 1 seed won its opening game by 71 points – not with 71 points, but by 71 – the game hardly needs a routine recounting, especially given the Dolphins will play three more games over the next three games with a good chance of winding up in the championship final on Saturday.
And Joe Linder and Ahmed Eltanham, the team’s two leading scorers, combined for exactly two second-half points while getting invaluable rest time. Surely, the highly-skilled starters are going to be front and centre in subsequent games.
So to Menzyk we turn. And why not? The six-foot-two guard came off the bench in the fourth quarter to drain back-to-back, nothing-but-net corner threes, the first of which pushed Dover Bay over the 100-point margin at 101-37. He even made a sweet power move to the basket for the final two of his eight points.
“It was a good feeling,” Menzyk said of his treys that had his teammates rising up from the bench and dancing up the sideline. “I’m so grateful to play with the senior boys this year. I was with the junior boys and our season ended unfortunately. We didn’t make it to provincials.
“I’ve been around Dover Bay for a while. Since I was really young, 10-11 years old, I’ve been coming to senior games, watching guys like Linder (a Grade 11, who started as a Grade 9) play”
Asked if the corner three was his go-to-shot, he replied simply: “Yeah”
Asked the same thing, Dover Bay head coach Darren Seaman grinned and said “It is today.”
“He can shoot the ball, but we’ve got lots to work on as far as the details.”
Seaman said he brought Menzyk up for the Island zone tournament and then provincials to get him as much experience as possible.
“Just being there and being part of it is really valuable.”
Eltanham led the Dolphins with 19 points, while Linder, the dynamic brother of former Dolphins standout, Frank Linder, had 10.
“We wanted to get those reps out against this team, have a good start at provincials,” said Eltanham of the Dolphins fast-paced transition play. “We don’t take any team lightly. We play as hard as we can. Everybody works hard in practice and that makes each other better.”
Six-foot-six guard Dane Schmidt had 18 points and Dover Bay had 11 players hit the scoresheet.
“They never stopped playing hard, no matter what the situation was, whether we were up 50 or whatever it was,” said Seaman of a team that has just one Grade 12 in guard Landen Ross after losing in last year’s Quad A final to Spectrum of Victoria.
Dover Bay will play a late afternoon quarterfinal Friday against No. 8 seed Centennial of Coquitlam after the Centaurs defeated Panorama Ridge 84-77 in their opening game.
NO. 8 CENTENNIAL 84 NO. 9 PANORAMA RIDGE 77
By GARY KINGSTON (Special for Varsity Letters)
LANGLEY – In a Varsity Letters feature on Centennial Centaurs star Alex Birsan in January, the six-foot-seven star forward was described by Drive Basketball co-founder Pasha Bains as a “platinum Swiss Army Knife “
And Birsan, born to parents of Romanian and Bosnian descent, was compared to – and likened himself to – nearly every Eastern European NBA stalwart over the last four decades, from Drazen Petrovic to Vlade Divac to Nikola Jokic.
On Wednesday, in Centennial’s 84-77 opening round win over Panorama Ridge at the B.C. seniors boys Quad A basketball championships, he routinely made highlight-reel plays that certainly evoked the best of the wave of Euro bigs who changed the way the NBA game is played.
Birsan scored 46 points, pulled down 11 rebounds and added at least half-a-dozen blocks and assists while being a virtual one-man band in the fourth quarter as the Centaurs built their largest lead – 11 points – and then hung on for an 84-78 win.
“He got going,” Centennial head coach Lucian Sauciuc said of Birsan. “He’s so versatile, so tough to match up with because he can play outside, he can play inside, he’s got the mid-range (shot) and he’s so tough to stop in transition.”
“I’m fortunate to coach him. We think he’s the best player in the province and he showed that today.”
Fronted and harassed early by the defensively diligent Dante Orie, who was giving away five inches in height, the multi-dimensional Birsan finally found enough room to sink a pair of three-pointers late in a first quarter that ended with Centennial up 21-19.
Birsan had 29 points after three quarters, then morphed into a centaur like figure by muscling to the basket for hotly-contested layups, shaking defenders with dynamic spin moves and pulling down rebounds with a ferocity that was scary.
“That was a tough game and it required a lot of grit,” said Birsan after he wiped away a heavy volume of sweat from his face. “We knew coming into it, it was going to be a feisty game and it was going to take a lot to gut out a win.”
In fact, Birsan was assessed a technical for getting in the face of a Panorama Ridge player after feeling that he was shoved too harshly out of bounds.
Birsan obviously expended a ton of energy in the game, but he said he wasn’t worried about his ability to bounce back for games Thursday through Saturday, including a contest with No. 1 seed Dover Bay of Nanaimo in the quarterfinals.
“As long as I win, I’ll do anything I can to win, everything in my power.”
Pouyan Ghadjahani had 10 points for the Centaurs, with Milan Bucan adding nine.
Gurtaj Hayer had 40 for Panorama on a combination of mid-range shots and strong drives to the basket. Jaideep Bhangoo added 18, all of them coming of three-pointers.
“That was a great game to be part of,” said Sauciuc. “Usually the 8-9 matchups are two evenly matched teams. I mean, give them credit, they hit so many shots. I thought we played pretty good defence at times, contesting, but they’ve been doing that all year, hitting shots from everywhere.
“I’m proud of our guys. We find ways to win tough games. I’ve told them all year, that’s the pedigree of a championship team, buckling down and finding ways to get stops when you need them. I’m happy to move on to the next game.”
That means a matchup with the Dolphins, who scored 112 points in their opener.
“Our defence probably needs to be a little bit better,” said Sauciuc. “We haven’t seen Dover Bay this year. Obviously, they’re a good team, No. 1 in the province, but we’re going to go and give it a shot. Let’s see what happens.”
NO. 4 KELOWNA 88 NO. 13 G.W. GRAHAM 67
By GARY KINGSTON (Special for Varsity Letters)
LANGLEY – As his Kelowna Owls, who were up by double digits, basically traded baskets with the G.W. Graham Grizzlies in the second half of a fast-paced game Wednesday, head coach Harry Parmar was stewing on the sideline.
Where was the killer instinct? Where was the knockout punch?
His Quad No. 4 seed Owls eventually won 88-67 in a game that wasn’t really in doubt, but a frustrated Parmar knows they’ll have to be better as the B.C. senior boys basketball tournament moves into the quarterfinal and semi final stages.
“My guys just don’t realize when it’s time to finish a team off,” said Parmar, the longtime coach of the Owls. “Just turn it up one more level. They just don’t understand that yet and it bothers me.”
The Owls led 39-26 at halftime and increased the advantage to 19 points early in the third quarter. But although they continued to score with relative ease, they couldn’t get the stops Parmar wanted to blunt the Grizzlies’ motivation to keep hanging around.
“There’s a time to put a team away and they’re just laissez-faire about it,” rued Parmar.
It is kind of hard to understand given the way the Owls attack the basket with the intensity of a herd of rampaging water buffaloes on the African savanah.
The two primary examples of that are six-foot-three Grade 12 guards Finn Stewart and Wells Grundy, who excel in transition by just putting their head down and powering past helpless defenders with speed and power.
“That’s what we work on a lot of the time in practice,” said Gundy. “Just contact finishing, getting to the rim.”
Stewart says simply that “it’s a mentality.”
Gundy had 25 points and Stewart 18 as the Owls took advantage of the No. 13 Grizzlies, who lost one of their best players in late January when he departed for a U.S. prep school.
“We just kind of fell asleep on the defensive end,” said Stewart of the Owls inability to increase the lead in the fourth quarter. “As we started to push the lead out on the offensive side, we just kind of lolly-gagged on the defensive side.”
But hey, it was still a win. And the balanced Owls, who start four Grade 12s, have put themselves in position to be a true contender after failing to make provincials last year.
“It feels really good,” said Stewart, adding that Parmar reinforced before the tournament that the Owls would be as good as any team in Langley.
“We’re a competitor and we should be here,” emphasized Stewart.
Parmar says defence, as it almost always is, will be the key if the Owls want to make it to Saturday’s final.
“Offensively, we can score and we have a bunch of guys, not one or two. We’ve got five or six guys who can give you 15-18 (points). When you have that, all you need is the defensive piece and you should be tough to beat.
Guard Beckett Goertzen led the Grizzlies with 19 points, while fellow guard Nick Baker chipped in with 17.
NO. 5 ST. GEORGE’S SCHOOL 74 NO. 12 HOLY CROSS 59
By GARY KINGSTON (Special for Varsity Letters)
LANGLEY – Guy daSilva thinks his No. 5 seed St. George’s School Saints are as good as any team competing in the Quad A tier at the B.C. senior boys basketball championships.
So, when they were only tied 30-30 at halftime of Wednesday’s tourney opener against the No. 12 Holy Cross Crusaders, he was feeling a bit uneasy.
“A great first half defensively, but we were a little bit tight on offence,” he said after an eventual 74-59 triumph. “We weren’t flowing enough.
“But we raised the defensive intensity (even higher) in the third quarter and that allowed us to get a couple of (baskets) in transition. We started to hit a couple of threes, see the ball go through the hoop, got to the free throw line and we started to get a little bit of momentum.”
Ah, the big Mo, it’s a wonderful thing.
A dead-eye three-pointer from Grade 12 guard Inno DeCotiis broke a 33-33 tie early in the third and when fellow guard Roman Simmons followed that with a conversion on one of his patented powerful drives to the basket, the Saints were off and running. Literally.
“I like being aggressive,” said Simmons. “I don’t think anybody under the rim can stop me when I’m going all the way, full (tilt).
“We knew it was going to be a tough game,” he added. “They actually beat us earlier in the season. But when we started being more physical, getting rebounds . . . we started to pull away.”
The Vancouver-based Saints led 52-44 lead after three quarters and a 15-6 run to start the final quarter gave them the comfortable advantage they held through the final buzzer.
“The first game is always the toughest,” said daSilva. “I’ve been on these guys all week, ‘we’ve got to focus on the first one, we can’t think of anything else but the first one.’
“The first one is so hard because of the nerves and (playing in) the Arena (Bowl) and the pressure.”
Some of the Saints know a little bit about pressure. Last year’s team reached the Quad A semifinals before losing to eventual champion Spectrum of Victoria 81-79.
This year’s team, however, has an added weapon in the six-foot-four senior Simmons, who missed his Grade 11 year with a torn meniscus.
He had a game-high 23 points against the Crusaders, many of them on spirited drives to the basket.
“He’s probably one of the best rim attackers in the province, if not the best,” said daSilva.
His return and the maturity of the rest of the roster is one of the reasons why the head coach thinks his squad has got a chance to make the final of a tournament where St. George’s highest finish in school history is third (2025, 2013, 2006).
“I think our best is the best in the province,” said daSilva. “We very rarely get there as with most teams. But I just try to tell our guys ‘Our best is as good as anyone else, if not better.”
The Saints will face No. 4 Kelowna in a quarterfinal on Friday (3:30 p.m.) after the Owls beat G.W. Graham on opening day.
“Kelowna will be another super challenging game,” said daSilva. “They’re a great team and they play more our style. They want to get up and down (the court). First team to 100 (points) is probably going to win that one.”
The two teams played at the Snowball tournament in Abbotsford earlier in the season, a game da Silva remembers the Saints winning “111-97 “or something like that.”
“Rematches are always tough,” said Simmons. “They’re going to be ready for us. They’ll know our tendencies, our strategies. But it’s going to be a high-scoring game.”
NO. 6 OAK BAY 93 NO. 11 KITSILANO 87 (OT)
By DAN KINVIG (Special for Varsity Letters)
LANGLEY — Down the stretch of Wednesday afternoon’s hotly contested 4A first-round match-up between the Oak Bay Bays and Kitsilano Blue Demons, it was vaguely disorienting to watch a Diego Maffia-coached team struggle to connect from beyond the arc.
Maffia, after all, is one of the greatest shooters in B.C. high school and Canadian university basketball history – a player who, as a member of the Bays, once scored 96 points in a single game, and who went on to become the UVic Vikes’ all-time leading scorer with 2,096 career points.
Of course, there’s only so much influence a coach can exert from the sideline. And the Bays aren’t so much a poor shooting team, as a team that was going though a cold snap at a most inopportune time. With upset-minded Kitsilano in a 2-3 zone defence, the Bays had a series of wide-open looks from beyond the arc at crunch time, only to watch five straight attempts – any of which could have broken the game open – rattle off the rim.
But when Oak Bay really needed a hero, it was Olin Lakos who stepped up. With his team trailing 84-83 with a minute left in overtime, the senior guard found himself open in the deep left corner and knocked down the triple. On the next Bays possession, he found a seam to the rim for a right-handed finish, giving his team the breathing room it needed to fend off the Blue Demons 93-87.
“I have all the trust in the world in these guys,” Maffia said afterward. “Every single guy on this team shoots the ball, and we’ve got to have confidence – that’s our mentality.
“The whole time I was telling the guys, ‘Be confident, be confident, be confident, because the next one’s going to fall.’ And it kind of worked out that way.
“To be honest, we talked about it as a coaching staff – there’s not a single guy on this team who deserves it more than that kid (Lakos). As a captain, as a leader, he’s done so much for this team. To step up in a big game like this to get us through, I’m so happy for him.”
While Lakos pushed the Bays over the finish line on Wednesday, it was Simon Wiwcharuk-Burr who carried them for much of the game. The 6-foot-4 Grade 11 guard is an absolute load in the low post, nearly impossible to keep out of the paint, and he racked up a game-high 35 points on his way to player of the game honours.
“At this point, I’m not surprised what that kid does every single day,” Maffia said. “He’s an absolute animal. He’s ultra-competitive, he wants to win so badly – I’ve never seen a guy who’s that fearless and competitive in a long time.”
On the Kitsilano side, senior forward Avery Nielson was Wiwcharuk-Burr’s mirror image – also standing 6-foot-4, and when he got started towards the bucket, a high-flying at-rim finish seemed inevitable. He poured in 31 points of his own.
The Blue Demons, who held a slender 25-24 lead after one quarter, caught fire midway through the second, pulling ahead by as many as nine (37-28). But the Bays stayed calm and were able to cut the deficit to 43-30 at the break.
The largest lead for either team in the second half was five points, and it stayed super-snug throughout the fourth quarter. Oak Bay led 78-76 in the dying seconds of regulation, only for Nielson to come through with a spectacular drive to the rim to knot the score with six seconds left. Wiwcharuk-Burr had a chance to end it at the buzzer, spinning his way to the bucket and hoisting a short fadeaway under duress, but the ball clanged out as Oak Bay appealed unsuccessfully for a foul. Off to overtime we went.
The Bays couldn’t seem to buy a bucket from beyond the arc in OT, but Lakos came through when it mattered – his back-to-back buckets put the Victoria squad up 88-84 with 35 seconds left, and free throws from Marcus Kao and Goodwill Niwemuto Bugwiza Jabo took the Bays home from there.
“It felt great, obviously,” Lakos said with a smile, reflecting on his late-game heroics. “We’ve got some height advantages on our team, and I’m confident the guys can get my rebounds, and I know they have trust in me. In the final moments, I know they trust in me to take the final shots, and they trust me to make those shots. It was a lot of fun.
“I really love this team, and I want to go all the way. I think we have enough talent, and it would be awesome to win this provincials.”
Lakos finished with 20 points, and Jabo (18) and Ty Humber (11) also scored in double figures for Oak Bay.
Neilson and the Blue Demons got scoring support from the likes of Justin Saffou (18 points) and Erik Bothner (11).
Maffia, meanwhile, would not be in position to coach his alma mater if not for a right ACL tear that delayed his transition from UVic to the European pro basketball. He said his rehab is going well – he expects to be cleared for full contact in a month – and he’s savouring these moments with the Bays in the meantime.
“I’m just having fun with it,” he said with a grin. “I’m learning probably as much as they are learning. It’s their first time here, and it’s my first time here being a coach. We’re trying to figure it out.
“But it’s all about the guys. They competed their tails off, and they deserve every bit of it.”
NO. 3 TAMANAWIS 69 NO. 14 YALE 60
By DAN KINVIG (Special for Varsity Letters)
Coming into provincials, Tamanawis Wildcats head coach Mike McKay felt his squad was playing its best basketball of the season.
And who could argue? Tamanawis had, after all, just emerged unscathed from arguably the toughest zone in the province, claiming the South Fraser title in highly impressive fashion.
In their 4A tournament opener, though, after a week-and-a-half layoff? Not so much.
But while the Wildcats may not have had their A game on Wednesday, they had juuuuuuuuuust enough of the usual mojo to dispatch the Yale Lions by a 69-60 count. But make no mistake – the scrappy, undersized underdogs from Abbotsford gave mighty Tamanawis all they could handle.
“We’re pretty Grade 12 heavy on the top end – these guys have been through a lot,” McKay observed afterward. “They’ve been in a lot of big games.
“It was kind of weird that we were a little nervous for this game – I thought we’d be more comfortable. But Yale came out early, made a bunch of shots, and we were chasing them for most of the first half.”
Indeed, the Lions were roaring early – Adri Shala knocked down a couple early three-pointers, and Taige Roberts, Yale’s 6-foot-6 do-everything forward, scored eight points in the frame as the No. 14 seed led by as many as eight points.
Gurjowan Cheema shot the Wildcats back into it, knocking down four first-half treys, and Tammy rallied to take a 39-33 lead into the break.
The Lions kept clawing away, though – Isaac Nyvall gave his team a lift with a pair of treys off the bench, Roberts continued to cook with a trio of buckets in the frame, and Yale was within 53-52 headed to the fourth.
The Lions lost starting point guard Saheb Chahal to injury early in the fourth, though, and Tamanawis was able to string together a few stops and got some key buckets from Anand Sandhu to finally gain some breathing room.
Sandhu, a silky smooth senior guard, scored eight points in the fourth, highlighted by an improbable, fading-away, desperation three-pointer as the shot clock expired to stretch his team’s lead to 66-57 with two minutes left. That shot proved to be the dagger – Tamanawis was fully in control from that juncture.
Afterward, Yale head coach Euan Roberts expressed disappointment with the officiating – Tamanawis had a 15-2 edge in free throws in the second half, and Coach Roberts also picked up a technical foul he felt was unwarranted.
“Every time we had momentum going, they took it from us,” he said.
That said, the Lions played with a ton of heart. Taige Roberts finished with a game-high 25 points, Nyvall scored 11 points, Adri Shala added 10, and undersized senior centre Besi Shala (6-foot-5) inspired his team as he battled in the paint against the likes of Tamanawis behemoth Luka Guzina (6-foot-11).
“Our guys played so hard,” Euan Roberts noted. “We practiced hard, and we knew what we were in for – we knew it was going to be a tough game.
“We wanted to leave the floor knowing we’d competed with one of B.C.’s best teams. And we did that.”
Sandhu counted four three-pointers among his 18 points to pace the Wildcats, and Cheema (17 points) and Guzina (16 points) also chipped in offensively.
“Hopefully coming back tomorrow, we’ll be better,” said McKay, whose charges will face No. 6 Oak Bay in the quarter-finals Thursday (8:45 p.m., LEC Arena Bowl).
“We haven’t played Oak Bay yet this year, but we always play each other tough. We’re going to have to do a better job on the defensive rebounds, for sure, and hopefully we can make some more shots.”
NO. 2 VANCOUVER COLLEGE 71 NO. 15 NEW WESTMINSTER 62
By DAN KINVIG (Special for Varsity Letters)
LANGLEY — Wednesday evening’s nightcap at 4A senior boys provincials looked, on paper, to be a sleepy affair.
Aside from the New Westminster Hyacks’ players themselves, and perhaps their moms, did anyone really think that the match-up between the No. 2-seeded Vancouver College Fighting Irish and No. 15 New West would be anything other than a blowout in favour of the higher seed?
The Hyacks, after all, were making their first appearance at senior boys basketball provincials in 21 years. The Irish? They’re here pretty much every year.
Welp… this is why they play the games. This is why sports are fun.
Those plucky Hyacks put a proper scare into the Irish, leading for much of the first half and hanging around into the fourth quarter before finally succumbing 71-62.
Afterward, New West head coach Udhay Mangat said he felt his team was underrated as a 15 seed coming in. After winning their city championship, they’d had a bout of sickness sweep through the squad, limiting their practice time prior to the Fraser North championships. They ended up suffering an upset loss in their zone opener to Dr. Charles Best – and team they’d beaten twice by double digits earlier it the season – and were forced to win three games in a row to earn their provincial berth via the back door.
Add it all up, and they were indeed a frisky 15 seed.
“We call it Hyacks basketball – we like to make things interesting, whether we’re a 15 against a two seed, or whether we’re top dog (at zones), we like to let the game be close,” Mangat said with a chuckle.
“We knew we could compete with them (the Irish). We watched six hours of film, and we knew what we needed to do. But their rebounding kind of killed us.
“We’re really proud. It’s the first time in 21 years that we’ve made it to provincials. So we’re happy to be here, and for us to play this hard against the No. 2 team in the province is really good.”
The Hyacks knocked the Irish back on their heels right out of the gate, scoring the first 10 points of the game with 6-foot-7 Grade 11 centre Djordje Komar and senior guard Kaman Kaila doing much of the damage.
The underdogs would lead by as many as 11, and held an 18-13 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Vancouver College got back into it in the second, led by senior guard Nathan Chen who scored nine points in the frame as the Irish rallied to lead 31-28 at the halftime break.
The Hyacks stuck around within a bucket or two throughout the third quarter, thanks in large part to their interior defence. Senior forward Daman Shoker had two highlight-reel blocks in quick succession, and Komar was holding his own in the paint as well.
Ethan Chiu gave the Irish a lift to end the third quarter, soaring for a buzzer-beating putback, and Dylan Arabiana opened the fourth with a trey to stretch the Van College lead to double digits (57-46). For the first time all night, the Irish could perhaps breath a small sigh of relief.
New West kept battling to the final buzzer, but the closest they were able to get was seven points, and that only in the final minute.
Chen and Ashton Wang paced the offence for Vancouver College, racking up 20 points apiece, and Arabiana and Micah Mayott chipped in with 10 points each.
Double-digit scorers for the Hyacks included Komar (13), Shoker (13), Kaila (12) and Jasper Domingo (12).
“We knew that they were going to be a good team,” Irish head coach Ryan Shams said. “I told the guys at the start of this, every team here is going to be good – they had to fight for their lives to get here. We saw the tape, we saw that they’re big, they’re physical, and they’re underrated. When you’re at the B.C.’s, every team is going to give you a good battle, right?
“I think our guys were just really excited, and the nerves showed a bit. Everyone, when they step onto the Arena Bowl, they’re so excited for the moment. I think they got a little bit too excited and got playing a little bit out of character.
“But once we settled down, we started to play our game. We called a timeout, and we were really calm with the guys, went over what we needed to do. We were looking for Ashton down low, try to get some easy looks and see the ball go in the hoop a couple times. That settled us, and we picked it up from there.”
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