Spectrum's Tyler Felt stood tall all weekend in leading No. 1 Spectrum to the title at the Legal Beagle Invitational which wrapped up play Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025 in Port Coquitlam. (Photo by Howard Tsumura exclusive property of VarsityLetters.ca 2025. All Rights Reserved)
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A Sunday Read: Guess why No. 1 Spectrum’s win over No. 3 Oak Bay in Terry Fox Legal Beagle final is the defending B.C. 4A champ Thunder’s biggest win of the season!

By HOWARD TSUMURA (VarsityLetters.ca)

SPECTRUM 70 OAK BAY 62

PORT COQUITLAM — Saturday night’s Legal Beagle championship final victory by the Spectrum Thunder is the Victoria team’s biggest win since it cut down the nets last March at the Langley Events Centre as the kings of B.C. Quad-A hoops.

It may seem a heady statement, yet on the road to its reinvention as the team these days defending its No. 1 overall status provincially, as opposed to chasing it, too many important things happened over the course of Spectrum’s 70-62 win over crosstown rival and No. 3-ranked Oak Bay to think any other way.

Only a night before, during its 77-58 win over No. 6 Vancouver College, a game in which Spectrum lost the services of frontline guard J Elijah Helman to a sprained ankle, Thunder head coach Tyler Verde preached the fact that his team’s No. 1 goal was to earnestly present players outside its headlining core the opportunity to show how their individual strengths were ready to enrich the team’s rotational depth.

And looking back on the way things unfolded Saturday night on the big floor at Terry Fox Secondary you could almost talk yourself out of logic… you could almost convince yourself that this was all pre-scripted.

Yes, the enormously-talented duo of soon-to-be Victoria Vikes — guard Justin Hinrichsen and forward Tyler Felt — just continued to provide the pivot point on which Spectrum’s entire operation is based.

In a low-scoring affair, Hinrichsen scored a game-high 28 points with 12 rebounds,  while Felt added a further 14 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks.

Yet all bets are off the table for Spectrum when it comes to facing the Bays, a team whose own talent and whose lust to defeat the Thunder so clearly makes each and every one of their head-to-head meetings more about the game’s intangible aspects than anything else.

And that, of course, is what makes our grand game here in B.C. so special in the first place.

So on Saturday what became most indelibly stamped in the memory department?

Spectrum head coach Tyler Verde loved the way his rotation grew depth and confidence en route to winning the Terry Fox Legal Beagle championship title Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025 in Port Coquitlam. (Photo by Howard Tsumura exclusive property of VarsityLetters.ca 2025. All Rights Reserved)

How about yet another example of all the ways in which our best teams, via some sort of magical, centrifugal force, seem to create that safe space environment which empowers those with more secondary roles to want to show they are capable of more… to figuratively step up to the table and place a bet on themselves.

In fact, the first thing out of coach Verde’s mouth following the Beagle title win, one which came on the heels of a defensive masterclass in which Spectrum held Oak Bay to just 22 points in the second half, including just eight over the entire fourth quarter?

“No. 33,” he said, referencing his 6-foot-4 senior forward Harkaran Dhah. “He didn’t play a single minute (in the semifinals against Vancouver College) and he didn’t play a single minute the last time we played Oak Bay (in the final of the Gary Taylor Invite before Christmas).

Indeed, unless you bought one of the deluxe 33rd annual League Beagle tourney programs, you’d had to have been a part of the Spectrum v. Oak Bay world to even know who No. 33 was.

“He talked to me before the game, and he said ‘I’m ready,’” continued Verde of a player who brings wingspan and effort while working his best to improve his foot speed on defence. “He said ‘What do I need to do?’ and I said ‘Look, Hark, you work really well on the ball, it’s your off-ball defence that needs some work.”

Spectrum’s Justin Hinrichsen was named MVP and Top Defensive player at the Legal Beagle Invitational which wrapped up play Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025 in Port Coquitlam.(Photo by Howard Tsumura exclusive property of VarsityLetters.ca 2025. All Rights Reserved)

While Hinrichsen, later named both the Legal Beagle MVP and Top Defensive Player, spent his time matched on fellow Vikes’ recruit Toren Franklin, Verde dusted the moth balls off Dhah and sent him out in the second half with the intent of attempting to slow the Bays’ other prime offensive threat, 6-foot-1 senior guard Diem Orser, who would have to be on anyone’s list of the best contested shotmakers in the province.

“When (Dhah) has a goal in mind, a focus, he does a really good job,” said Verde. “With his length on Diem, I decided to put him in and he focussed just on stopping him. He did a hell of a job. It took a bunch of individual guys banding together to work as a group to really take away their two guys, then rotate, rebound. Of course our goal is to take away Toren and Diem. We (forced) a couple of shot-clock violations and made a couple of key defensive plays that really sealed the game.”

Another to step put of the shadows on Saturday was the player who replaced Helman in Spectrum’s starting line-up.

Rotational forward Mateo Williamson, a 6-foot-2 senior, not only scored 13 points, he hit two huge threes in the third quarter, including the one which sent the game into the final frame knotted at 54-54.

Oak Bay, which got 17 on the game from Franklin and 14 from Orser, had earlier led in the third quarter by a 43-33 count but saw that advantage vanish as the Thunder went on an 18-7 run to pull within 52-51, setting the stage for the Williamson triple. The Thunder never looked back on the scoreboard the rest of the night.

“Absolutely everyone was cheering for them,” Verde admitted of the contagious chemistry both Dhah and Williamson co-authoured on Saturday.

C.J. Zuno of the Spectrum Thunder is often times the smallest player on the court, but he stood tall against all comers en route to being named the Terry Fox award winner at the school’s Legal Beagle Invitational which wrapped up play Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025 in Port Coquitlam. (Photo by Howard Tsumura exclusive property of VarsityLetters.ca 2025. All Rights Reserved)

“And then with CJ having the game of his life Friday with his seven threes… he struggled a bit to shoot the ball today but in the fourth quarter, he drove to the hoop, and then he hit a three. He just stayed ready to go… and he won the Terry Fox award. We couldn’t have been more proud,” added Verde of senior guard CJ Zuno, who while a starter has elevated his contributions enormously since the start of the 2023-24 championship season. 

The Terry Fox Award is presented to the player deemed to best embody the spirit of the Canadian icon who attended the school in the days in which it was known as Port Coquitlam Secondary School before going on to join the basketball program up the hill at Simon Fraser.

Fittingly it is the last award presented annually at the Legal Beagle.

More Spectrum vs. Oak Bay meetings are set to follow and along with Nanaimo’s Dover Bay Dolphins, a three-pronged backyard battle is now fully underway.

Yet the closeness of the all-Victoria derby will always define what has made meetings in 2024-25 between the Bays and Thunder so uniquely special.

“They are extremely tough, we know every single thing about them, and it’s the same with them and us,” summed Verde. “So it’s very difficult. But it’s also fun. And as much as each guy is wanting to win, they are also friends, which is pretty cool. We are staying in the same hotel. All hanging out. It’s pretty cool to have a group like that in our city and we see them a lot. Each game is a grind. They are grindy wins. And hopefully they can continue for us.”

Vancouver College’s Lucas Tan-Ngo and the rest of the Fighting Irish went to overtime Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025 to finish third at the Legal Beagle Invitational at Terry Fox Secondary in Port Coquitlam. (Photo by Howard Tsumura exclusive property of VarsityLetters.ca 2025. All Rights Reserved)

No. 6 VANCOUVER COLLEGE 95 No. 9 TERRY FOX 87

PORT COQUITLAM — A full 40-minute effort from the young, near non-senior Terry Fox Ravens, on some nights, seems a lofty goal.

Yet when the Beagle hosts play an entire game, in this case, a 45-minute OT classic, the clouds in their crystal ball seem to quite suddenly part with revealing clarity.

Such was the case Saturday in the third-place game.

Vancouver College, itself steadied and improving, got all it could handle from a core of Ravens coming off last season’s B.C. junior championship title before emerging 95-87 winners.

Andres Garcia, an accomplished three-point shooter, scored a game-high 32 points via the old-fashioned route.

Lucas Tan-Ngo hit four triples and finished with 24 points, while Lucas Lee added 13.

Korbin Lonquist and Maksym Cichecki scored 16 apiece for the Ravens while Deklen Martin had 15. Haven San Pedro with 13 and Jayson Ikani with 11 more highlighted Terry Fox’s balanced scoring output.

COMING TOMORROW — The host and No. 1-ranked  St. Thomas More Knights faced the No. 2-ranked St. Patrick’s Celtics in the final of STM’s annual Rich Goulet Chancellor Invitational, played in front of a sold-out, standing-room-only crowd at the Knights’ cozy Kingsway confines.

We’ll tease the story with this photo from Saturday night and be right back here with you tomorrow!

St. Pat’s Dhyne Cotin is guarded by STM’s Jacob Ortega in front of a capacity crowd during the final of the Rich Goulet Chancellor Invitational on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025 in Burnaby. (Photo by Howard Tsumura exclusive property of VarsityLetters.ca 2024. All Rights Reserved)

If you’re reading this story or viewing these photos on any website other than one belonging to a university athletic department, it has been taken without appropriate permission. In these challenging times, true journalism will survive only through your dedicated support and loyalty. VarsityLetters.ca and all of its exclusive content has been created to serve B.C.’s high school and university sports community with hard work, integrity and respect. Feel free to drop us a line any time at howardtsumura@gmail.com.

One thought on “A Sunday Read: Guess why No. 1 Spectrum’s win over No. 3 Oak Bay in Terry Fox Legal Beagle final is the defending B.C. 4A champ Thunder’s biggest win of the season!

  1. Wow! Excellent write-up of the Terry Fox 2025 Tournament Your reporting is very detailed and interesting! Proud Gramps of Mateo Williamson.
    Rick Williamson ADHS 1959-60 Alberni

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