By Howard TsumuraVarsityLetters.caHeavy mettle.That’s the best way to describe the Simon Fraser Red Leafs men’s basketball team over its past six games.On Thursday night in Fairbanks, Alaska, a Red Leafs’ team which had opened the GNAC season with an 0-4 record won for the third time in their last six outings, this time going to […]
Author: Howard Tsumura
She’s the Red Leaf rising! Myrlaine Shelvey hits six triples and Simon Fraser flirts with GNAC’s free throw record in much-needed 83-68 win over Western Oregon’s Wolves!
BURNABY MOUNTAIN — Myrlaine Shelvey knows the one thing her basketball team needs most is secondary scoring.On Thursday, as Simon Fraser continued a three-game home stand against a visiting Western Oregon Wolves team tied with them at 3-6, both locked just outside of playoff contention in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference standings, the redshirt sophomore […]
MEI puts vise grip on AAA No. 1 rank ahead of BC girls championships 75th anniversary tourney! Coach Thiessen calls his 2024-25 Eagles ‘unique’ over his 31 seasons on the bench!
BY HOWARD TSUMURAVARSITYLETTERS.caABBOTSFORD — When you’ve coached basketball for three-plus decades at the same school, you arrive at a juncture of your career where your words begin to carry an-ever deeper meaning.So when MEI Eagles’ senior girls head coach Rick Thiessen, who this season finds himself in his 31st year of guiding either a senior, […]
01.29.25 edition: BC Boys Top 10 hoop ranks: What’s hotter than new Quad-A No. 1 Oak Bay and its star Toren Franklin who scored 42 in Emerald title tilt? And how about those No. 7 Heritage Woods Kodiaks!
LANGLEY — Toren Franklin scorched the goals to the tune of 42 points on Saturday in carrying Victoria’s Oak Bay Bays to 95-89 win over Nanaimo’s Dover Bay Dolphins in the championship final of the Vancouver College Emerald tournament.The win lifted the Bays into the No. 1 spot in the B.C. senior boys high school […]
01.27.25 edition: B.C. senior girls basketball rankings: It’s a month to the start of the provincials, and No. 1’s and No. 2’s holding ground at all four tiers!
LANGLEY — One month out from the start of the B.C. championships and finding spots in the top four of B.C.’s four senior girls varsity tiers is tough sledding.This week, North Vancouver’s Argyle Pipers move up one spot to No. 3 in Quad-A.Prince George’s College Heights Cougars and the Vernon Panthers each move up a […]
01.27.25 edition: SRS boys Top 50 sees Spectrum maintain top spot while Heritage Woods’ six-spot jump portents exciting Fraser North 4A title battles to come!
LANGLEY — Victoria’s Spectrum Thunder hold their spot atop the SRS weekly Top 50 for B.C. boys high school basketball.Here are this week’s latest set of numbers, which also see Walnut Grove and Sullivan Heights make Top 50 entries, courtesy of B.C. Basketball Metrics:
No. 2 Dover Bay tops No. 1 Spectrum in Van College Emerald Final 4 as UBC signee Frank Linder scores 39 points, including winning triple! Dolphins face No. 2 Oak Bay in Saturday final!
VANCOUVER — Frank Linder’s game-winning three-pointer with 24 seconds remaining snapped a 79-79 tie and lifted Nanaimo’s No. 2-ranked Dover Bay Dolphins to an 82-79 win over the previously undefeated, reigning B.C. champion Spectrum Thunder of Victoria in the second of two afternoon semifinals at the Vancouver College Emerald tournament on Friday.“Today, Frank really stepped […]
No. 1 Victora 90 No. 2 UBC 88: Buzzer-beating jumper keeps Vikes perfect, falls like a dagger through UBC hearts!
BY HOWARD TSUMURA (VaristyLetters.ca)Regardless of your rooting interest, one thing was clear Thursday night in the provincial capital.The basketball gods give as well as they take.Ethan Boag’s baseline corner jumper from just inside the three-point arc dropped through the irons at Ken and Kathy Shields’ place just as the final buzzer sounded, giving the hometown, […]
01.22.25: B.C. senior boys basketball rankings: Fleetwood Park finding hoop paradise! Dragons from unranked to Quad-A No. 5 after RCMP upset of Tammy brings January record to 9-1!
LANGLEY — The Fleetwood Park Dragons are taking a cue from the calendar.Unranked in the Quad-A tier last week, the Dragons finally came through with that so-called signature victory, stopping the then-No. 4-ranked Tamanawis Wildcats 72-65 in the final of the Surrey RCMP Classic on Saturday at the Langley Events Centre.The victory, on the backs […]
01.20.25 edition: SRS boys Top 50 sees Oak Bay Bays take over No. 2! SMUS, King George, Handsworth, MEI make top rises while three other newcomers arrive!
LANGLEY — B.C. Basketball Metrics’ latest SRS Boys Top 50 would have No. 1 Spectrum vs. No. 4 Kelowna, and No. 2 Oak Bay vs. No. 3 Dover Bay if the Final Four was tipping off Jan. 20.(As I add a day after posting, thanks to loyal reader Jack Showers, that of course isn’t possible […]