(Note, due to time constraints, the Dover Bay vs. Kelowna game report will appear Saturday morning)
NO. 2 VANCOUVER COLLEGE 70 NO. 6 OAK BAY 69
By DAN KINVIG (Special for Varsity Letters)
LANGLEY — To break a historic curse, you need a little magic.
And while “curse” is probably too strong a word for something as as insignificant in the grand scheme of the universe as a high school basketball championship drought, the fact remains that the Vancouver College Fighting Irish haven’t won a B.C. senior boys title since 1967. That’s a span of 59 years.
If the Irish were looking for a little magic, though, they got it in spades on Friday night.
Left for dead in their 4A semifinal match-up vs. the Oak Bay Bays, trailing by 11 points with 90 seconds left in regulation, Vancouver College closed the game on a stunning 12-0 run, snatching a 70-69 victory from the jaws of defeat.
They’ll be back in the LEC’s Arena Bowl on Saturday (7:45 p.m. tip-off) with a chance to make history, facing the winner of the late semi between Dover Bay and Kelowna.
“You need a moment like this to make the story a little bit sweeter,” marveled head coach Ryan Shams, who ran over to the Fighting Irish fan section on the west baseline after the final buzzer sounded to join the epic celebration.
“I blacked out. I’m going to have to watch the tape back and see what happened, because that was just a blur. The boys never gave up, and they stuck together. We’re going to the ’ship now. It’s crazy.”
Crazy barely covers it.
The Bays, up 29-27 at the half, seized control of the game with a 17-1 run to end the third quarter. Defensively, they did an incredible job of keeping the Irish’s high-octane transition game under wraps – in fact, Van College rarely got out on the break at all. Meanwhile at the offensive end, Grade 11 guard/forward Simon Wiwcharuk-Burr was posing questions the Irish couldn’t answer, scoring 14 points in the frame as the Victoria squad took a 53-38 lead to the fourth.
Oak Bay maintained a vise-grip on the proceedings into the dying minutes. With two minutes left, Ty Humber of the Bays saw his fast-break dunk attempt rattle out. But Oak Bay’s lead (67-58) was still comfortable at that point, and Wiwcharuk-Burr’s putback with 1:30 left in regulation made it 69-58.
That was the last point the Bays would score.
Vancouver College’s 1-2-2 zone press started causing chaos, and they scored seven points in the blink of an eye, capped by Nathan Chen’s and-one layup. It was suddenly 69-65, and still 1:01 left on the clock. Game on.
The Irish continued to cause havoc on defence, grappling to earn a jump ball – possession arrow to Van College. Senior guard Lucas Tan-Ngo was subsequently fouled on a three-point attempt, and while he made just 1-of-3 at the line, he rebounded his last miss, and the ball was rotated back to him on the left wing… and he drilled a three.
Tie game. 19.1 seconds left. Can you believe it?
the Langley Event Centre. (Photo by Dan Kinvig for Varsity Letters 2026. All Rights Reserved)
After a timeout, Oak Bay’s Olin Lakos drove to the rim for a highly contested right-handed layup attempt, but it clanged off the rim. Van College transitioned from defence to offence in a hurry, and Ethan Chiu drew a foul on his way to the bucket.
3.1 seconds left. Two free throws.
“Biggest moment of my life,” Chiu said afterward. “I knew my teammates, my brothers, they all had my back. It’s an amazing feeling.
“Nerves? For sure. I was literally shaking at the line. Took a lot of deep breaths, calmed myself down, and I hit the shot.”
Chiu’s first attempt went through to make it 70-69. His second attempt missed, but by the time Oak Bay secured the rebound, they had no choice but to hoist a desperation heave from beyond halfcourt that fell well short.
Pandemonium.
“It feels amazing,” Tan-Ngo said after emerging from the celebratory mosh pit at centre court.
“This is the goal we’ve had since the start of the season . . . and we’ve never wavered. Now we have the opportunity to do it. We’ve got 40 minutes to prove we’re the best team in this province, and I know each and every one of the guys in that locker room is going to prove it.”
As for the fact Van College hasn’t won it all since 1967? Tan-Ngo said they’ve “heard about it a lot.”
“It’s a running thing at our school,” he said. “But each and every one of us in that locker room, we’re ready. We’re ready to break that curse.”
The Bays have been waiting a long time in their own right for a senior boys basketball championship – Oak Bay’s last one was in 1977.
Head coach Diego Maffia was eloquent in the aftermath of a painful result.
“It’s going to hurt for a while, and that’s natural,” he said. “I’ve been there before in the same circumstance, and there’s nothing you can do about it – it hurts.
“But one of the things we told our guys is, that’s why we play the game. That’s why basketball is basketball, that’s why March is March. That’s the beauty of the sport, the beauty of provincials – things like that happen. You think you have the game under control, and unfortunately, a couple plays happen.
“Yesterday it was us making the game-winner (in the quarter-finals vs. Tamanawis), and today, we’re on the wrong side. But again, it happens. It’s March. It’s tough to say anything to these guys, because of how attached we are and what we’ve been through.”
Wiwcharuk-Burr, who scored the winning bucket for Oak Bay in the quarters, was a monster once again in the semis, posting a huge double-double (23 points, 13 rebounds). Marcus Kao added 22 points for the Bays, who will surely lament the fact they lost the turnover battle by a 22-6 count.
Chen’s 25 points were a game-high for Van College, and Tan-Ngo added 18 points and spearheaded the late defensive surge, finishing with seven steals on the night. Ashton Wong also scored in double digits for the Irish, with 11 points to go with 13 boards.
“It’s been a crazy tournament,” Shams marveled. “We’re just taking it one game at a time. We need one more win, and then we’re good to go.”
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