BURNABY — Is March Madness 2024 going to play out to the strains of Bruce Springsteen’s classic Thunder Road?
Or perhaps that should be AC/DC’s power-chord bonanza known as Thunderstruck?
As January does its usual fast-break towards February and the stretch drive to the B.C. senior boys basketball championships, its soundtrack has indeed been thunderous, as in the Thunder of Saanich’s Spectrum Community School.
Hot on the heels of perhaps the most dominant four-game stretch that the Rich Goulet Chancellor Memorial invitational at Burnaby’s St. Thomas More Collegiate has ever seen (last Wednesday through Saturday), the then-No. 2 Thunder travelled across town to Oak Bay on Tuesday and upended the then-No. 1 Bays 74-65 in a South Island Quad-A league clash.
In the latest Top 10 provincial rankings issued Wednesday afternoon, Spectrum reclaimed the No. 1 position while the Bays dropped two spots to No. 3.
The victory over Oak Bay gave Spectrum a 2-1 edge in the overall derby series this season with the next meeting another league clash, this one scheduled for Jan. 25 at Spectrum. Beyond that, the stakes will elevate for potential meetings at both the zone playoffs and provincial championships.
“They want to be the best team in the province,” Thunder head coach Tyler Verde told Varsity Letters of his team following a 91-54 win over host St. Thomas More in the Goulet Chancellor final on Saturday. “We want to win provincials this year and next year, and they know what they need to do to do that. When these guys get on the court they are strictly about business.”
That was certainly the case at the Chancellor where the Thunder beat, in order, Steveston-London, Fleetwood Park, Byrne Creek and then the host team, all by an average margin of 31 points per game.
Heading into STM’s Goulet Memorial, the Thunder were favourites to win the tournament title, yet Verde said afterwards that the four-games-in-four-days event, which mimics that of both the TBI and the provincial tourney, was the perfect opportunity for his team to expand the depth of its base.
“We’ve progressed pretty well, but the biggest thing I would say for us as a group was we needed to get other guys more involved with more reps, (help them find) more confidence,” said Verde, “and when I say that I mean everyone other than Justin, Tyler and J… and that really came through this weekend.”
Those, of course, are the names of the Thunder’s key all-Grade 11 triumvirate of Justin Hinrichsen, Tyler Felt and J Elijah Helman. They have been as good as any trio in B.C. this season, combining to average 54 points per game.
The 6-foot-4 guard Hinrichsen, one of the most electric players in the province, has averaged 21 points, 15 rebounds, six assists, two steals and a block this season.
Felt, the 6-foot-8 forward, has produced at a per-game clip of 16 points, 9.5 rebounds and three blocks per game.
Helman, a 6-foot-1 guard, scores it at an average of 17 points per game with six rebounds and four assists to boot.
In the Chancellor final, that broadening base of talent began to show itself as Grade 11 guard CJ Zuno poured home a team-high 22 points against the host Knights.
Some of the others who took advantage of increased playing time and a bigger load of expectation on theior shoulders included the senior guard duo of Gio De Gracia and Justin Le.
Afterwards, STM lead assistant and program architect Aaron Mitchell couldn’t help but tip a hat to Spectrum and the way it handled itself as a team over a four-day span in which it dominated the opposition.
“The thing that impressed me the most was something you don’t see a lot, and I know when people read this they will call me a grumpy old man,” began Mitchell, “but when the guys on the floor hit a three, they are not even thinking about the shot they just made. They are moving on to the next play, ready to get a steal or a defensive stop.
“We’re down twenty-something at the half and we wanted to chip away at it the first five minutes (of the second half), but they went on a 13-2 run… just boom, boom, boom,” continued Mitchell. “Their overall aggression, relentlessness and poise stood out. And they are just not worried about flashiness. They aren’t yelling ‘And-1’ after a made basket. It’s an old-school, on-to-the-next-play, get-after-it style. I think it says a lot about the community they live in, it’s more blue collar and that translates to the basketball part.”
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