LANGLEY TOWNSHIP — Welcome to Day 2 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
BOYS
QUAD-A (at Arena Bowl)
DAY 2
NO. 4 KELOWNA 92 NO. 5 ST. GEORGE’S 84
By HOWARD TSUMURA
VARSITY LETTERS
LANGLEY — Back on Jan. 17, in the championship final of the Abbotsford Snowball Classic, the St. George’s Saints out-raced the the Kelowna Owls to a 111-92 win.
It was pretty hard for the head coaches of those two teams to forget about a 200-plus-point combined effort in a 40-minute high school game.
In fact so much so that when the Owls and Saints set a collision course for each other following respective Day 1 wins here at the 80th annual B.C. senior boys Quad-A basketball championships, Saints’ head coach Guy da Silva did nothing but grease the skids for more of the same when he talked in the post-game to Varsity Letters’ reporter Gary Kingston.
“They’re a great team and they play more our style…they want to get up and down (the court),” he said. “First team to 100 (points) is probably going to win that one.”
Indeed it started out that way, in what was truly a classic example of two teams answering the other’s Titanic runs with one of their own.
Kelowna came flying out of the gates to lead 16-2. St. George’s got its say, getting back into the game at 49-45 by later going on a slower-developing 39-20 run other its own to pull within 39-30.
A 26-6 Owls run put them back on top 75-53 at the end of the third quarter then Saints threw the kitchen sink right back at the Owls, with a blistering run of its own to get within 87-82 when Pierce Simmons chased down a Kelowna air ball and managed to make a tough lay-in with 1:47 left.
And while nobody got to the century mark, in keeping with the old post-season cliche of how championships are won, Kelowna head coach Harry Parmar opened his post-game talk with a simple sentence.
“I figured we had to play some defence,” he said when asked about the game’s most pivotal stretch.
After Roman Simmons’ driving laying three minutes into the third quarter had pulled Saints to within four points at 49-45, but Kelowna’s game-changing response came not in transition, but with patient and precise play in the half court.
Over a span of four minutes, the Owls’ Wells Grundy, Finn Stewart, Thomas Anderson and Humraj Chahal scored from virtually every angle of half-court attack available, their play without the ball as impressive as as their play with it.
And before the Saints knew what had hit them, Kelowna was leading 68-47, it’s biggest margin of the contest to that point.
“Well, there’s this persona that we can only play transition basketball,” smiled Parmar whose program punched Final Four tickets for an incredible seventh time in the past 11 tournaments.
“We can play in the half court if we have to. I mean, we can do either way you want. Right? We want to run, don’t get me wrong, but if we want to play in the half-court, we’re playing in the half court.”
The move got the Owls’ 6-foot-6 post Anderson more involved in the offence.
“I wanted to get the ball to our post more and he can be very good,” said Parmar. “And to win this at the end, very rarely do you win it in transition. You gotta remember, that basketball is played 70% in transition, though. So only 30% of the time do you really have to get to the half court. So as long as you have some good half-court stuff, good things should happen.”
Saints’ head coach Guy da Silva, disappointed for his players, put a more philosophical spin on the loss.
“I think Kelowna just came out with a little bit more hunger, a little bit more focus,” he admitted. “Their first quarter was great. They had 29 in the first. We just seemed a little bit on the back foot. We’re a real young team and they got a lot of Grade 12s, and I think that showed. But I was so proud of how hard we fought at the end to get it back.”
About that loss to Saints at Snowball back in January?
“I always knew when they beat us, that was our sixth tournament in seven weeks on the road and we didn’t have our ‘A’ game that game,” he said. “They played phenomenal. They shot the lights on. (Tonight) you can think whatever you want. These are kids. We almost gave it away to them at the end. But we didn’t. And we get to play tomorrow, which we want. It doesn’t matter if the rest of province doesn’t believe in us. As long as the 14 people in that room believe in us, that’s all that really matters.”
Grundy played the role of a tough-minded senior leader to perfection, scoring a game-high 30 points including four titles as all five Owls starters tallied into double-figures.
Stewart had 16, Logan Parker had 15, Jake McParland had 12 and Anderson 10.
St. George’s was led by its Grade 11 guard Willem Urban, who scored 24 points. Roman Simmons added 19, Inno DeCotiis 16 and Raehaan Siddoo 14.
NO. 1 DOVER BAY 78 N0. 9 CENTENNIAL 69
By GARY KINGSTON (Special for Varsity Letters)
LANGLEY – Look up dolphin behaviour online and the general thrust goes something like this: ‘They’re the acrobats and court jesters of the sea, troops of aerial spinners and wave dancers.’
Other descriptions note how much dolphins love to play, how they bond so easily within their pod and how highly intelligent they are.
Hmmmm. That’s pretty much the way the Dover Bay Dolphins senior boys basketball team plays hoops.
Playful court jesters who fly high, spin and contort their bodies while showcasing a high degree of hoops intelligence.
All of that came together Thursday as the Quad A No. 1 seed scored the game’s final nine points to secure a 78-69 quarterfinal win over Centennial Centaurs.
The game was extremely close throughout, with the lead never getting beyond six points either way until the Nanaimo-based Dolphins went on that close-out run.
“We kind of just turned it over to the players offensively,” said Dover Bay head coach Darren Seaman. “They won the game on that end.
“We did make some adjustments defensively and as soon as they saw that working, I think it kind of fed our offence and they started feeling better.”
The most obvious defensive adjustment was having six-foot-five Grade 10 Tanner Standerwick crowd Centaurs’ star senior Alex Birsan and do everything possible to deny the brilliant scorer the ball.
It was a pitched battle that saw both of them fall in a heap to the floor at times. At other times, Birsan, who goes six-foot-seven, looked to be pleading with the officials for a foul call.
“For sure, it was definitely very physical,” said a beaming Standerwick. “He’s a really big guy, strong. He’s definitely a handful. Good matchup. I did my best and came out on top.”
Birsan, who opened the tournament with a 46-point outing, had 23 in the first half against Dover Bay, but just eight in the fourth quarter, and none after the five-minute mark as Standerwick made his life miserable.
“It was awesome,” said Seaman of the hard-nosed battle between the two forwards. He even laughed when told it took some guts to give the job of defending Birsan to a Grade 10.
“Yeah, but he’s the man for the job. That’s the stuff he likes doing. That’s the stuff he takes a lot of pride in. He’ll be really happy. Like, he won us the game.”
He did have some help, most notably from a pair of Grade 11s, athletic forward Dane Schmidt, who had 30 hard-earned points, most of them in the paint, and guard Joe Linder, who had 29, including nine off three-pointers.
Schmidt, who also had 11 rebounds, was a monster down low and displayed a wide array of spin moves to shake defenders under the basket. Two of those baskets came off in-bounds plays, in which he freed himself with deft turns to find space for easy buckets.
“I take pride in that,” said Schmidt, who added that he felt like he played his best game of the year. “We rep that play in practice so many times.”
Schmidt said he had little doubt that the Dolphins would prevail in the fourth quarter.
“We’ve been battle-tested all year with close games. Coach is just telling us all the time to just weather the storm and keep going.”
Said Seaman: “There’s just this feeling, I don’t know how to say it. For whatever reason, I just felt like it’s going to be OK.”
Dover Bay, which lost in the Quad A final at provincials last year to Spectrum of Victoria, now advances to a semifinal matchup on Friday with No. 4 seed Kelowna after the Owls won their quarterfinal game 92-84 over St. George’s of Vancouver.
“They like to run,” Seaman said of the Owls. “They’re pretty wild. You can’t really scout them.”
Seaman also shakes off any talk that being the No. 1 seed puts undue pressure on his players.
“Just one game at a time. Obviously, we’re in a big important tournament, but we’re just looking at the next game, how to get through that. It doesn’t really matter (the seeding). You’ve got to win your games. It doesn’t matter where you’re ranked.
“It means nothing. You have to win.”
NO. 2 VANCOUVER COLLEGE 83 NO. 7 SEMIAHMOO 70
By GARY KINGSTON (Special for Varsity Letters)
LANGLEY – The Vancouver College Fighting Irish senior boys basketball team are a near fixture at the provincial championships.
But Irish players have not experienced the joyous thrill of climbing the ladder and cutting down the net after a final since the 1967 squad. To put it mildly, that’s an eternity.
In the last three decades, Vancouver College has finished second three times (1998, 2009 and 2011) and third five times (2007, 2008, 2010, 2022 and 2023).
Ranked No. 2 in Quad A this season, the Irish have made another semifinal by beating the Semiahmoo Totems 83-70 on Thursday at the Langley Events Centre. And the pressure will ratchet up again.
“We know it,” head coach Ryan Shams says of the 59-year title drought. “I said to the guys at the start of the year that there really is no pressure because it’s been so long. We look at it that way, but I know the whole alumni association and all the kids from school are going to be out here supporting us (Friday night) because they all want to see it happen.”
After a slow start to the season when the Irish were admittedly not very good at Tsumura Basketball Invitational, the 17-deep Irish roster has coalesced behind a strong group of Grade 12 leaders in forward John Anthony and guards Nathan Chen, Lucas Tan-Ngo and Ashton Wong.
“This is a great group of guys, just a great group,” said an enthusiastic Anthony, who led the way offensively against the Totems with 16 points. “We’ve gelled together like no one has ever gelled together before.”
OK, that might be a bit of hyperbole. But Anthony then doubles down on the closeness of a roster that features 10 Grade 12s.
“Our coaches have always supported off the court bonding and so on the court and off the court this team has just got closer and closer together. We’ve been playing together, a lot of us, since Grade 8. We have a big group of seniors this year and we all have so much love for each other and want to see each other succeed.”
They’ve certainly got a balanced offence. While Anthony, a strong inside presence did lead the way on the scoresheet, he was ably supported by Chen and Tan-Ngo with 15 points each and guard Micah Mayott with 14 on a quartet of threes and a pair of free throws.
After what Anthony called a “greasy win” over New Westminster on Wednesday, built a sizable halftime lead at 47-29. Semiahmoo did get to within eight midway through the fourth quarter before the Irish closed it out with a succession of free throws.
“We are very composed,” said Shams. “It’s a very special group of guys. In my 12 years of coaching this may be one of the most tight-knit brotherhoods I’ve ever had.
“We’ve played in a lot of big games throughout the year, our Saints games, the B.C. Catholics, our Emerald tournament, but I think most importantly we’ve got a big (roster). We’re very deep and we roll 10 or 11 deep today. We trust all the guys on the bench and I think that depth is what got us through tonight.”
Semiahmoo was led by Grade 12 guard Jack Snead, who had a game-high 35 points.
But it was Anthony and his merry band of brothers and their dukes-up, fighting leprechaun mascot who advanced to the Final Four.
And like his coach, Anthony isn’t shy about answering questions about College’s long title drought. Being the first team to bring a title to the school after 59 years is “obviously the goal,” he said.
“But we try not to focus on that too much. If we just stay clear-minded . . .
And with that, he returns to the unshakable belief that this Irish team has bonded like no other.
“This is the most amazing group I’ve ever been a part of and I think we can really do it this year.”
In the semifinal, the Irish will get the winner of the Oak Bay-Tamanawis quarterfinal. College has not played either team this season.
NO. 6 OAK BAY 67 No. 3 TAMANAWIS 66
By GARY KINGSTON (Special for Varsity Letters)
LANGLEY – From the ‘saved the best’ for last department, we give you the fourth Quad A quarterfinal of the day Thursday at the B.C. senior boys basketball championships.
Sure, it was a desultory first quarter – a 14-6 lead for No. 3 Tamanawis over No. 6 Oak Bay – but a crazy back-and-forth second half came down to the wire with an exchange of clutch free throws and a gutsy drive against three defenders by Oak Bay’s Simon Wiwcharuk-Burr with 10 seconds left for the winning basket.
A 67-66 upset win moves the Bays into a semifinal matchup Friday with the No. 2 seeded Vancouver College Fighting Irish.
“That kid’s got some heart and some competitive nature,” Oak Bay head coach Diego Maffia said of Wiwcharuk-Burr’s power move of an inbounds pass in Tamanawis’ half. “That was very impressive from that kid. He’s been playing well all season. He deserves it.”
The six first-quarter points had the Oak Bay coaching staff shaking their heads.
“In the first half, we weren’t hitting it and the coaching staff looked at each and we were thinking ‘we’ve got to trust these guys.’”
And that trust paid off.
The Bays just kept firing bombs, hitting 12 threes in the second half, including five from five-foot-10 guard Marcus Kao, whose 21 points for the game all came off shots from behind the arc. Six-foot-six Grade 12 guard Goodwill Niwemuto Buwiza Jabo hit three from deep en route to 21 points.
The biggest of the treys came after Tamanawis had gone on an 8-0 run to go up 57-55.
Jabo swished one from the corner with 3:51 to go and Kao followed 40 seconds later with a bomb from the top of the arc and Oak Bay held the lead until Tamanawis’ Anand Sandhu drained two free throws with 12.7 seconds left to put the Wildcats up 66-65.
But Wiwcharuk-Burr would not be denied after catching the in-bounds pass and putting his head down as he drove to the basket along the baseline.
“It’s just all those times . . . that you’re working these plays (in practice) that you hope you’ll be able to experience,” he said. “I’m so grateful to be here, so grateful to be in a position like that. We work on those plays, last-second scenarios.”
He finished with a team-high 22 points and the Bays earned a berth in a semifinal with a chance to capture the school’s first senior boys title since 1977.
“It feels incredible,” said Wiwcharuk-Burr, who was in tears on the court after the buzzer. “I mean Oak Bay, it’s been tough for (the school) for a long time. We haven’t won a championship in over 40 years, 50 years. But we’re looking for it now and we’re going to bring this trip home.”
Victor Cortel lead the Wildcats with 25 points, while Sandhu chipped in with 15.
