NO. 1 ST. PATRICKS 122 NO. 4 LAMBRICK PARK 82
By HOWARD TSUMURA
VARSITY LETTERS
LANGLEY — It doesn’t seem to matter the height of their stage, because no matter how big their moments get, and no matter how bright you turn up the lights into their collective stare, Vancouver’s St. Patrick Celtics just don’t blink.
After opening the B.C. senior boys Double A basketball championships on Wednesday with the highest single-game scoring total by a winning team in its 126-57 win over Cranbrook’s Mt. Baker Wild, the Celtics surpassed that effort by a multiple of Mt. Everest and more on Friday.
From a No. 1 vs. No. 16 opener, to a No. 1 vs. No. 4 contest in within the dream-like atmosphere of the Final Four are two distinctly different animals, and although they didn’t score quite as many points on Friday, a 122-82 win over Victoria’s title-contending Lambrick Park Lions spoke loud and clear that the 2025-26 St. Pat’s Celtics (37-1) are now a win away from being considered perhaps the best Triple-A teams and one of the best overall in the province’s four-tiered era.
The 122 points it scored were the most ever on the championship side of the draw at either the Quad-A or the new Triple-A tier which came into effect in 2014. Burnaby South was believed to have held that distinction the past 49 years with the 118 points it scored in its 1977 tournament opener.
In fact so good have the Celtics been, that if you ask many, they will unequivocally tell you they have been B.C.’s best since the end of the first week of December when they dispatched the then No. 1 Quad-A Tamanawis Wildcats of Surrey 78-72 in the championship final of the TBI Super 16, also at the LEC.
“We were ready… we’ve been ready,” said St. Pat’s head coach Nap Santos afterwards, as his team now prepares to face the winner of the all-Surrey Enver Creek vs. L.A. Matheson semifinal in Saturday’s 5:15 p.m. title game. Under Santos, St. Pat’s has won two of the past four Triple-A titles.
“We knew what they were gonna do and we have so many sets that we’re ready to run,” he said of Lambrick Park.
the Langley Event Centre. (Photo by Dan Kinvig for Varsity Letters 2026. All Rights Reserved)
Enroute to a 70-47 halftime lead, the Celts not only shot a blistering 70 per cent (28-of-40) from the field, they were also 11-of-18 (61.1 per cent) from three-point range.
St. Pat’s finished 68 per cent from the field and 48 per cent from three (14-of-29) against a Lions’ team they had beaten just 99-91 back on Dec. 30 in the second round at the UVic Vikes Invitational in Victoria.
Yet there was no question when the game fully turned in the Celtics favour.
With 1:58 remaining in the first half, trailing by nine, the Lions logically elected to sub out their dynamic senior point guard Blake Pye for a well-timed break. It made sense, St. Pat’s was so hot to that point, how much hotter could they get.
Yet the entire flow of the gam suddenly seemed turned on its ear.
“I knew that they needed to sub out give Blake a little bit of a breather and usually you do it at the end of the half,” acknowledged Santos. “And that’s when we turned it up. We turned up our defence like crazy. And we made shots too.”
Indeed they did.
In that entire span of 2:03, including an earlier Riley Santa Juana triple, the Celtics went on a 16-2 run to lead 70-47 at intermission.
Dhyne Cotin hit two triples, then he and teammate Lemuel Castro took turns with fast-break layups.
Then, Santa Juana wrapped up the half, taking a Cotin steal and pulling up to switch a three with four seconds remaining.
“It’s been like that all year,” said Santos of his team, which has beaten Quad-A semifinalist Vancouver College twice this year, and had split with Quad-A No. 1 seed and semifinalist Dover Bay.
“We haven’t changed anything. I’m so proud of how they’re just so unselfish. and you’ve seen it all year… the way they’re so unselfish, and they all love each other. It’s great to see.”
Jemuel Castro led the winners with 26 points, while Cotin and Santa Juana each scored 24 points. Jaiden Quan added 21 points.
Lambrick Park could have won the vast majority of the games it has played over a 36-7 season based on its 82 points scored, and the UBC-bound Pye, who scored a game-high 35 is quite clearly one of the very best in the entire province.
Damian Orr and London Buck, the team’s two 6-foot-6 forwards, scored 16 and 11 points respectively.
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