Vancouver College's post Roko Maric proved to be just shy of untouchable on Tuesday night at the LEC en route to being the MVP of the 2022 B.C. junior boys basketball championships as the Irish topped Burnaby South to finish the season a perfect 31-0. (Photo by Paul Yates property of Vancouver Sports Pictures 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

With a reach that extended far and wide, MVP Roko Maric helps Van College Fighting Irish top Burnaby South Rebels for its first B.C. junior title in a decade!

LANGLEY — Roko Maric’s outstretched arms were a huge part of the post-game celebration Tuesday evening on the court at the Langley Events Centre.But truth be told, the bigger story was the presence the outstretched arms of Vancouver College’s 6-foot-8 Grade 10 forward had over all four quarters of the final game of the 2021-22 […]

St. George's Josh Coleman is guarded by Handsworth's Tate Christiansen. Vancouver's Saints moved into the No. 1 spot in the Quad-A Top rankings as the VSS zone champs. Meanwhile, the province's toughest zone brought a premature end to the Royals' season. (Photo by Blair Shier property of Blair.photo 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

BC boys high school basketball rankings 03.01.22 edition: March is here, and with it, a pair of new No. 1’s in St. George’s and Lambrick Park!

LANGLEY — Topsy-turvy times on the eve of the provincial championships.What better way to get set for the finale to a challenging but exciting re-start in 2021-22 for B.C. boys high school basketball.There are new No. 1’s at Quad-A and Double-A, and perhaps the most overall shifting we seen all season.Here’s the complete look for […]

Vancouver College's Cole Pryputsch (centre, 11) grabs a rebound in between teammate Aidan Lear and Oak Bay's Tyler Browne on Monday at the LEC. (Photo by Blair Shier property of Vancouver Sports Pictures 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

VC’s Fighting Irish face Burnaby South for B.C. junior boys crown on Tuesday! Rival head coaches may be buddies, but usual hoops phone chatter now likely put on hold!

LANGLEY — A pair of B.C. junior boys basketball coaches who discovered a while back how much they love to engage each other in deep discussion of the game have been making a habit of chatting over the phone a few nights each week during the season.That those two happen to be Vancouver College Fighting […]

From ice cold to red hot, Abbotsford Panthers' Grade 11 star Dilveer Randhawa was the stretch-drive difference maker in his team's Eastern Valley Quad-A championship final win over Langley's Walnut Grove Gators on Sunday at the LEC. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

Dilveer ditches his doldrums! Randhawa comes alive in fourth as Abby Panthers top Walnut Grove Gators for Eastern Valley Quad-A title spoils!

LANGLEY — Whatever basketball’s version of the all-points-bulletin is, Abbotsford Panthers’ head coach Brent Ciochetti was wishing he could have put one out Sunday evening at the Langley Events Centre for his star Grade 11 forward Dilveer Randhawa.In its tense and spirited clash with Langley’s Walnut Grove Gators for the Eastern Valley Quad-A championship title, […]

MVP Braeden MacDonald (left) of Chilliwack's G.W. Graham Grizzlies steps up on defence against MEI's Connor Friesen during Eastern Valley senior boys AAA final played Feb. 27 at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

This linebacker tackles hoops just fine! G.W. Graham post Braeden MacDonald scores 23 points, earns MVP nod as Grizz top MEI’s Eagles for 3A Eastern Valley title!

LANGLEY — Through the flooding and through the pandemic, Braeden MacDonald has persevered with a smile on his face.On Sunday, the dream season for G.W. Graham’s 6-foot-4, 200-pound Grade 11 linebacker/tight end/power post just kept on getting better.MacDonald, who in December helped the Grizzlies win a Subway Bowl senior varsity Quad-A football title at B.C. […]

Two of B.C. junior basketball's rough-and-tumble best came together Sunday in the provincial quarterfinals at the LEC as West Vancouver's plaid-adorned Zeyad Ahmed collides with Burnaby South's Llorikk Gutierrez. (Photo by Blair Shier property of Vancouver Sports Pictures 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

B.C. Jr. Boys Elite 8: Burnaby South shows plenty of shine as roster’s depth steps up to earn win over West Van and berth in Monday’s Final Four!

LANGLEY — What’s a sure-fire way to get Burnaby South junior boys basketball coach Rupi Dahia to shrug his shoulder?Simple: Ask him who the stars of his team are.“That’s the key thing about this team… we don’t really have that ‘best’ player,” Dahia confessed Sunday after his No. 3-seeded Rebels made every key shot they […]

St. Pat's players had plenty of second-half moments to celebrate as they rallied past Fleetwood Park on Sunday to earn a berth in the B.C. junior Final Four. (Photo by Blair Shier property of Vancouver Sports Pictures 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

B.C. Jr. Boys Elite 8: St. Pat’s Jovin Sunner shines bright as defending champ Celtics rally past Fleetwood Park Dragons for Final Four berth!

LANGLEY — The St. Patrick’s Celtics are playing their best basketball of the season at precisely the right time.Ask head coach John Boateng about it, and he’ll tell you that it’s a case of Sunner rather than later.Oh, that’s as in Jovin Sunner, the hard-luck 6-foot-3 Grade 10 forward who did a little bit of […]

Vancouver College's Vince Velasquez and SMUS' Camilo Libreros (bottom) illustrate the abandon to which the two history-laden programs attacked Sunday's B.C. junior quarterfinal at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Paul Yates property of Vancouver Sports Pictures 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

B.C. Jr. Boys Elite 8: Van College’s 29-0 Fighting Irish top SMUS as team defence continues to be its baromtre!

LANGLEY — The Vancouver College Fighting Irish are taking care of one thing first and foremost, and it’s served them well as B.C.’s No. 1-ranked team heads into the semifinals of the provincial junior boys basketball championship semifinals on Tuesday.“I think we’re continuing to play well, and the focus is getting stops on defence,” said […]

Brookswood's Logan Stewart found the going tough against the defence of Tyler Browne and the rest of Victoria's Oak Bay Bays. (Photo by Paul Yates property of Vancouver Sports Pictures 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

B.C. Jr. Boys Elite 8: Oak Bay tops Brookswood, Bays’ coach David Thompson loves his ‘basketball junkies’!

LANGLEY — David Thompson loves the way his players love the game.The head coach of the Vancouver Island champion Oak Bay Bays got yet another commanding performance from his so-called ‘basketball junkies’ on Sunday morning, as the No. 5-seeded Victoria squad used a commanding third-quarter surge to hand Langley’s No. 20-seeded Brookswood Bobcats a 58-49 […]

Fleetwood Park's Karan Sran dishes the ball as book-end Gators' defenders David Kim (left) and Joshua-Owen Merriott converge on Saturday at the LEC. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

Fleetwood Park, Walnut Grove fans brings the emotion (and volume) back to our game… Dragons top Gators in a classic Sweet 16 clash as BC juniors close out Day One!!

LANGLEY — They abided by the 50 per cent capacity rules on the opening day of the B.C. junior boys basketball championships at the Langley Events Centre.Yet based on the passion, emotion and flat-out volume brought to proceedings by the cheering sections for the final game of the night, supporters for Surrey’s Fleetwood Park Dragons […]