LANGLEY — Welcome to Varsity Letters’ coverage of the 79th annual B.C. Senior Boys Basketball Championships here at the Langley Events Centre.
No. 1 Spectrum will face No. 2 Dover Bay for the B.C. title Saturday (7:45 p.m.) at the Langley Event Centre’s Arena Bowl.
Here’s our two game reports from Final Four Friday:
Thanks for your patience and our promise to deliver on a nightly basis.
Howard Tsumura
FINAL FOUR
FINAL 8 ROUND
TOP HALF DRAW
No. 1 SPECTRUM 81, NO. 5 ST. GEORGE’S 79
DAN KINVIG (Special for Varsity Letters)
The Spectrum Thunder may not be invincible, but they are starting to feel inevitable.
The reigning B.C. 4A champions looked mortal at times on Friday, but not even an all-timer of a scoring performance from Dorian Glogovac of the St. George’s Saints could derail the Thunder’s drive to repeat.
Glogovac did his utmost, carrying his squad to a scarcely believable extent and finishing the night with 53 points. That’s the highest single-game point total across all tiers at provincials this week, and it’s the fifth-highest scoring outing in the 79-year history of B.C.’s top-tier senior boys basketball championship.
In fact, we’re going to make an editorial decision to pause this game recap and update the 4A single-game scoring list right here:
1. Nathan Vogstad, Queen Charlotte – 75 points (2014)
2. Miguel Tomley, Tamanawis – 66 points (2018)
3. Sam Vandermeulen, Abbotsford – 58 points (1965)
4. Jacob Doerksen, Rick Hansen – 54 points (2005)
5. Dorian Glogovac, St. George’s – 53 points (2025)
Incredible, historic stuff, and the numbers barely even scratch the surface of what it was like to watch Glogovac on Friday evening. It was a borderline spiritual experience. Even the crustiest, most jaded basketball observer would have felt an involuntary cheer rise in their throats, watching this kid hit shot after shot to will his team back into it.
Post-game, fans would meet each other’s eyes while walking the concourse, and raise their eyebrows with palms up, as if to say, Can you believe what we just saw?
Those who were in the LEC’s Arena Bowl were truly blessed to be there. It was that type of performance.
And at the end of the day, overcoming it also serves to enhance the Thunder’s mystique.
“There’s not much you can say – he’s a hell of a player,” Spectrum head coach Tyler Verde marveled. “I really like Dorian’s game. He works hard on his craft, he’s extremely talented, and he hit some crazy, crazy shots.
“We played them at the beginning of the season (a 78-73 Spectrum win in the finals of the Welcome Back Invitational in Duncan), and he did something very similar. So he likes playing against us.
“Growing up, I remember one play from Kobe Bryant in the corner over three guys against Portland. And some of those shots (at the end of the game) reminded me of that. You know, obviously comparing somebody to Kobe Bryant is crazy. But it just reminded me of that, as somebody who grew up watching basketball.”
High praise, to be sure. But well-warranted.
St. George’s served notice early that they weren’t intimidated of the reigning champs, opening a 10-2 lead. Spectrum calmly worked their way back into it, with J Elijah Helman and Tyler Felt doing much of the scoring, and the two teams were deadlocked 35-35 at the half. Glogovac, remarkably, accounted for 25 of his team’s points at that juncture.
The Thunder built a multi-possession lead, and a disastrous end to the third quarter momentarily appeared to doom St. George’s. With 10 seconds left in the frame and Spectrum up 55-49, Helman was fouled on a three-point attempt, and hit all three free throws. Saints pushed the ball upcourt in search of a buzzer-beater, only to turn it over and yield a Helman breakaway layup at the horn. Suddenly it was 60-49, and Saints looked to be in trouble.
Willem Urban resuscitated his team’s hopes – after going scoreless over the first three quarters, the Grade 10 guard drilled a trio of triples in quick succession.
Glogovac had 37 points through three quarters, and was by now the focus of such defensive attention, the Thunder would have likely sent a player with him if he’d run down the tunnel to use the restroom. But after Urban’s outburst, he managed to shake loose again and again.
We’ll pick it up with two minutes left in regulation, as Glogovac hit a three to cut the Spectrum cushion to 72-66.
Justin Hinrichson responded with a pair of free throws, but Glogovac was fouled beyond the arc on the next trip and hit all three from the stripe. 74-69 with 1:32 left.
Harper Kopp got a layup on the press break and Felt was fouled on a dunk attempt, pushing the Thunder edge to 77-69 with a minute left. Game over, right?
Nope.
With 27.8 seconds left, Glogovac hit a ridiculous – even by his standards – twisting, fading three-pointer over two players, and it was 79-74.
Glogovac tipped the ball away from Hinrichson at halfcourt and pulled up for a three, and when it rimmed out, the crowd was almost stunned. But Urban stole the ball back and made a layup to make it 79-76.
Helman was fouled and made one of two, and Saints pushed the ball ahead to a streaking Glogovac who made another insane three-pointer over the 6’5” Hinrichson to get his team to within a point at 80-79. This is the Kobe Bryant stuff Verde was talking about.
Felt was sent to the line with 5.3 seconds remaining, and made the first but missed the second. Glogovac grabbed the rebound, and his pull-up from just across the halfcourt line went off the rim. Urban came soaring in and had a crack at the putback, but it wasn’t to be.
As individual performances in semifinal losses go, Glogovac’s will go down in tournament history alongside Kelly Olynyk’s back in 2009. The future NBA luminary racked up 37 points, 14 rebounds, nine assists and three steals, only to foul out in the dying seconds of regulation as his South Kamloops Titans dropped an 81-74 OT decision to – ironically – the St. George’s Saints, who would go on to win the title.
“It hurts, man,” Glogovac said afterward, the emotion of the moment written all over his face. “I mean, you work so hard for this your whole life dreaming of this moment, and you come up one shot short, it hurts for sure.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity to play here. We worked so hard, and I’m so grateful for the team. I said, I’m going to leave everything I’ve got out here, no regrets. I’m so proud of the guys. We fought, we gave it everything we had. Spectrum came out on top today, and they deserved it.”
Helman racked up a team-best 32 points for the Thunder, to go with 13 rebounds and six assists. Felt added 26 points, and Hinrichson, though limited to just five points, found other ways to contribute with 14 rebounds, five assists and four blocks. CJ Zuno posted a double-double with 13 points and 10 boards.
Glogovac added 14 rebounds and four assists to his line on the box score while playing the full 40 minutes. Urban finished with 11 points, all of which came in the fourth quarter.
On Saturday evening (7:45 p.m., LEC Arena Bowl), the Thunder can become the first team to win top-tiered B.C. crowns in consecutive years since the Kitsilano Blue Demons turned the trick in 2001 and 2002.
(It is worth noting, of course, that Burnaby South won it all in both 2020 and 2022, with a COVID-cancelled year in between).
“We’re ready,” Verde said. “We did not play our best today by any means. Even first half, they wanted it more than us, they got more offensive rebounds, that kind of stuff. But in there (Spectrum’s locker room), they’re ready to go. We’re excited, we’re happy to be back in the finals. We want to do something special, and I think we’re in the spot to do it.”
And what’s it going to take?
“Heart, wanting it more, sticking together as a group,” Verde said.
“When we cheer, we talk about family. We’ve spent a lot of time together as a group, and wining a championship last year together when you have 12 guys returning, you build really, really strong bonds. I know every guy in that room, including coaches, would die for one another.
“We love each other, and that’s what matters.”
BOTTOM HALF DRAW
No. 2 DOVER BAY 92 No. 6 TERRY FOX 64
By HOWARD TSUMURA
VARSITY LETTERS
LANGLEY — Any time you wake up on the morning the B.C. senior boys Quad-A championship final game knowing that history is about to be made, you can’t waste time with negative emotions like anxiety and worry.
“I don’t think about nerves, I just think about the excitement” Dover Bay’s exquisitely-talented Grade 12 forward Frank Linder explained Friday night after pouring home a game-high 24 points, grabbing 20 rebounds and blocking eight shots to lead his No. 2-seeded Dover Bay Dolphins of Nanaimo past the No. 6 Terry Fox Ravens 92-64 in the second of two Friday Final Four clashes, thus securing a berth in Saturday’s 7:45 p.m. final against Spectrum of Victoria.
“It just brings excitement.”
Hey, what’s not to get excited about.
The No. 1 seed vs. the No. 2 seed.
The very first all-Vancouver Island championship final in 47 years… since the Nanaimo Islanders defeated Victoria’s Oak Bay Bays in 1978.
The very first time that two defending B.C. champions have met in a senior boys provincial final (in 2024, Spectrum won at 4A, Dover Bay won at 3A and then moved to 4A).
“To be a part of history, to be part of this story, how we got here through the challenge game,” began Dover Bay head coach Darren Seaman, eluding to its sudden-elimination win over Oak Bay for Vancouver Island’s second-and-final provincial berth), “and now we’re in the final. There’s the 3A vs. 4A champs part. It is a great story and to be a part of it is special.”
Of course, its bottom line is that of any B.C. final: Just win, baby.
And to that end on Friday, the Dolphins continued to show the rest of the province that outside of its three-way Island rivalry, there is not a team anywhere else in the province capable of slowing their train.
Dover Bay, no doubt, would have wanted to be a little tidier with their percentages, but they came out unrepentant from beyond the arc, shooting 12-of-39 from three-point range (31 per cent), getting the vast majority of those makes off quality ball rotation, but then also showed a penchant for chasing down the long rebounds that so often accompany three-point misses.
And it was those second-chance opportunities in the half court which led to point paints and free throw trips.
“Clearly they have a high level of confidence in their three point shot and you can just tell because if it’s an open shot and it’s a good shot, they can miss and they don’t care, they don’t get bothered by it, and if they have it again, they’re going to take it again,” remarked Paul Eberhardt, the West Vancouver Highlanders’ head coach while serving as the colour analyst during the livestream broadcast of Friday’s game.
“When I was growing up in Kerrisdale, the Kesely Brothers were legends,” he continued of Doug Kelsey and his younger brother Howard, both of whom played their high school ball at Point Grey Secondary. “I’ll never forget what the great Doug Kelsey told me one day. He said ‘Ebes, I don’t care if I miss 10 in a row because I am going to make my next 10, and that is the mentality you have to have, Clearly Dover Bay does.”
Van Suiter scored 19 points in win, shooting 5-of-14 from three.
One day after scoring 37 in a Final 8 win over Holy Cross, the ‘Fins Grade 10 point guard Joe Linder had 16 points including 5-of-9 shooting from behind the long line.
Evan Slater went 4-of-10 from distance and finished with 14 points.
Terry Fox was led by the 19 points and 14 rebounds of Jayson Ikani and the 11 points and nine rebounds of Maksym Cichecki.
And back to the Dolphins, Frank Linder hit just 1-of-4 from three, but besides finishing two blocks shy of a triple-double, had four assists and one turnover in over 37 minutes on the floor.
“Just rebounding, just working hard and rebounding,” Frank Linder explained of what keyed the win against a Ravens team which was riding an emotional high after rallying from 20 points down to defeat Vancouver College in Thursday’s quarterfinals. “Offence, with this team, it comes. But we’ve just got to work hard and focus on our rebounding.”
Which is a perfect segue into what will be the fifth meeting of the season between the two teams.
Spectrum won the first two games, played at each other’s gyms. Dover Bay won the only game thus far on a neutral floor, topping the Thunder in the semifinals of the VC Emerald, before Spectrum beat Dover Bay at the Nanaimo school in the semifinals of the Vancouver Island championships.
They have played each other so much… is there any need to game-plan into the wee hours of Saturday morning?
Eberhardt has been in similar positions throughout his 40-plus years of head coaching and offered his take during the livecast.
“It’s so hard when you have played a team so many times, so at this point of the year, you do a little less scouting and focus more on ‘What is it that we’re going to do?” he said. “It things like ‘We need to impose our will on them.’ But it’s almost like a best-of-seven series, so you make little adjustments, but when you get to the final you just throw the ball up and you want your team to play to your strengths and that is what will make the difference in the end.”
Dover Bay’s Seaman boils all of that to its essentials for both teams.
“The will,” he says. “The will to win. Can the kids muster up the will do the right thing, make the right decisions, every possession matters.. do we have it in us to make those right decisions.”
Whatever happens, it’ll be history. And it’ll be ‘exciting’.
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