NORTH DELTA — Welcome to Quadrant D of our 75th anniversary All-Time B.C. High School Boys Basketball Tournament Bracket.
We have posted the complete bracket featuring all 32 first round results right here at VarsityLetters.ca, and we will include that same bracket with each of our in-depth looks at all four quadrants (see bottom).
VarsityLetters.ca did not take part in the team selections nor the fantasy outcomes.
Next week’s second-round results will like run either Tuesday or perhaps Wednesday. Stayed tuned for further details on the actual release date.
QUADRANT D
SUB-REGIONAL 1
(at New Westminster YMCA)
No. 1 St. Michaels University School vs. No. 16 Sir Winston Churchill
The skinny — Let’s face it, if you could go back and watch any games live-and-in-person, the majority would likely choose to watch Steve Nash as a high school senior with the Blue Devils.
Over his one glorious season with SMUS, Nash showed the early signs of becoming one of the greatest catalysts in the entire history of the sport, and in his team’s 76-48 win over Pitt Meadows, he closed out his high school career with 31 points, 11 rebounds, eight assists and four steals on his way to MVP honours.
Vancouver’s Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs, as passionate a B.C. champ as there’s been, climbed to the top of the mountain in 2014 led by MVP guard Mindy Minhas, who scored 23 of his game-high 30 points in the second half of a title-game win over Holy Cross.
The way that Nash and Co. beat a very good Pitt Meadows team led by star big man Scott Walton is ample proof of their overall impact.
FINAL SCORE: SMUS 90 Sir Winston Churchill 72
No. 8 Duke of Connaught (1951) vs. No. 9 Vancouver College (1960)
The skinny —Led by MVP Paul Buday, and all-stars Ray Jolin and Ernie Nyhaug, the ’51 Connaught squad gave legendary head coach Ken Wright his second straight provincial title win (on his way to three straight) over Vancouver’s John Oliver Jokers.
The Dukes’ primary job heading into this fantasy clash with the 1960 Vancouver College squad?
Try to keep Irish scoring machine Mike Melanson under wraps.
Melanson scored 38 points to lead Vancouver College, almost an upset victim to Oak Bay on the opening game of the tournament, to a 69-52 title-game win over Prince Rupert.
The fantasy result?
FINAL SCORE: Duke of Connaught 53 Vancouver College 51
SUB-REGIONAL 2
(at Oak Bay)
No. 5 North Delta (1990) vs. No. 12 Walnut Grove (2017)
The skinny — The seed number seems a misplaced for the talented, Ty Rowell-led Gators, whose 2017 title-winning 78-65 victory came at the expense of a gutsy effort from the Kelowna Owls.
Yet in the final analysis, our crew of experts went with the Bill Edwards-coached Huskies, who beat Richmond 75-66 in the 1990 final behind impressive performances from MVP forward Chad Johnston, and guard/soon-to-be NFL punter Mitch Berger.
The 6-foot-7, 250-pound Johnston was a force inside throughout, and when the final buzzer sounded, the Huskies’ title had come with their 37th straight win of the season.
FINAL SCORE: North Delta 78 Walnut Grove 73
No. 4 Centennial 1972 vs. No. 13 Burnaby South (1953)
The skinny —The North Delta Huskies managed to keep a Grade 11 Lars Hansen off the awards podium in 1971, but no one was going to deny the senior big man from Coquitlam, who was headed for a career with both the Washington Huskies and the Seattle SuperSonics.
The 6-foot-11 Hansen scored 39 points in both the provincial semifinals, and final, the latter a 60-40 win over North Delta.
All of that is tough news for the 1953 Burnaby South squad. They ended the Duke of Connaught dynasty with a hard-fought 53-51 victory in the 1953 final, and with nothing to choose between its two electric scorers — Bob Ramsay and Don Steen — the pair were chosen co-MVPs.
Hansen, however, like Wilt the Stilt, was the difference maker.
FINAL SCORE: Centennial 80 Burnaby South 68
SUB-REGIONAL 3
(at Queen’s Park Arenex)
No. 6 Duchess Park 1980 vs. No. 11 Kitsilano 1996
The skinny — The first non-Mainland, non-Vancouver Island team to win the top-tiered title… it’s an accomplishment that makes the 1980 Duchess Park Condors of Prince George true B.C. hoosiers.
Led by all-stars Karl Bush, Mike Suderman, Kent Stanley and Brian Fenkel, the Condors beat Nanaimo 57-40 in the championship final.
And in the end, the selection committee picked them to top the 1996 Kitsilano Blue Demons.
FINAL SCORE: Duchess Park 78 Kitsilano 68
No. 3 Oak Bay (1977) vs. No. 14 Richmond (1985)
The skinny — A well-oiled machine under head coach Don Horwood, the Bays won their fifth title in 1977, topping Surrey’s Princess Margaret Lions 75-64 behind the near-automatic touch of 6-foot-10 MVP Ken Kirzinger, who was 12-of-14 from the field as part of a 20-point performance.
The 1985 Colts, Richmond High’s first champs, boasted a big man of their own in Steve Taylor, as well as top-notch teammates in Jim Lemond and Ray Doyle.
However Oak Bay, at the height of its powers, proved to be too much.
FINAL SCORE: Oak Bay 83 Richmond 74
SUB-REGIONAL 4
(at Kitsilano)
No. 7 Pitt Meadows (1989) vs. No. 10 Oak Bay (1973)
The skinny — A milestone title game to end the 1980s saw head coach Rich Goulet become the first coach to win B.C. senior varsity boys basketball titles at different tiers when he first denied Richmond’s bid for a three-peat in the semifinals, then toppled crosstown foe Maple Ridge in a 58-57 derby clash which has to be considered one of the best rivalry finals ever contested.
Derek Welsh, Dan Beebe and Al Tuchscherer were the blue-chip trio that got it done, and in a fantasy match-up at Stan Lawson Gym against the 1973 Oak Bay Bays, they were selected to once again take care of business.
FINAL SCORE: Pitt Meadows 71 Oak Bay 66
No. 2 MEI (1963) vs. No. 15 Yale (2008)
The skinny —They jammed almost 6,000 into UBC’s War Memorial Gym for the 1963 final between the MEI Eagles and the Alberni Chieftains.
Head coach Jake Braun’s Eagles were led by book-end scoring threats Ed Suderman and George Heidebrecht, and in the final that pair combined for 39 points in MEI’s 58-40 win.
Again, in one of those true time-machine games, with 45 years separating the Eagles from the 2008 Yale Lions of Abbotsford, the committee thought long and hard about this one.
In the end, however, with all respect to the immensely-talented Joel Friesen, and the likes of Jasper Moedt and Brad Kufske, they gave the nod to perhaps the Eastern Fraser Valley’s greatest team of all time.
FINAL SCORE: MEI 68 Yale 54
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