PORT MOODY — On Saturday night, just a handful of hours away from the clock striking December, the Vancouver College Fighting Irish basketball team put on a demonstration of passing, three-point shooting… and the contagious nature of shared smiles.
The occasion was the third-place game of the Heritage Woods Kodiak Classic senior boys tournament, and as the Irish began second half play with a 47-35 lead over the Kelowna Owls, it almost felt like you needed to keep your head on a half-court swivel just to follow the action.
First, Nathan Chen from the baseline corner for three. Then, Lucas Lee from the other baseline corner for three. Next, Andres Garcia for three more from the top of the arc. And finally, back to the first baseline corner for another Chen three.
It was a 90-second flurry over four straight possessions which gave the Irish a 19-point lead, one which they ultimately parlayed into an 89-68 victory.
But afterwards, head coach Ryan Shams was able to project moments like that for his team over the first week of the new season onto a bigger screen, so to speak… one which says a lot about not only less-pressurized environment he has sough to foster, but the resultant camaraderie which has grown organically along the way, ultimately becoming the face of the team.
“The way that I embrace it with this team is that at Vancouver College we often put a lot of pressure on ourselves to win,” began Shams, who has entered his second season at the helm the V.C. senior varsity, and on Wednesday at the Langley Events Centre leads his No. 5-ranked Irish into the TBI’s opening Super 16 round with a 3 p.m. Centre Court tip-off against Nanaimo’s Wellington Wildcats.
“When I first got the job last year, I said ‘Hey, look, no one has won (the senior provincial title) at VC since ’67,’ so let’s have fun. Let’s do our thing. We’re talented and we’ll see what happens. I think sometimes we put a little too much pressure on ourselves to win it, but there is no pressure because we haven’t won it since ’67.”
Yes, 1967.
The same year Canada turned 100. The same year the Toronto Maple Leafs last won the Stanley Cup.
The Irish senior varsity hoopers have not won it all for 56 years and counting, although their 54 B.C. tournament appearances are far and away the most by any school.
Make no mistake about it, the No. 1 theme to the newly-minted 2024-25 Quad-A season is Vancouver Island domination, the likes of which comes courtesy of three incredible teams of the defending B.C. Quad-A champion Spectrum Thunder of Victoria, the defending B.C. Triple-A champion Dover Bay Dolphins of Nanaimo, who have been moved up to the Quad-A tier this season, and the old guard Oak Bay Bays, also of Victoria.
Yet after watching Vancouver College on Saturday night — the same night its senior varsity football team won its third straight B.C. AAA title — it was clear that this was a team not weighed down by its history.
To tell it like it is, if you’ve been around high school hoops in B.C. over the last generation plus, it should come as no surprise that at various points you come within ear shot of those hushed whispers regarding the half-century plus which have passed since the last Vancouver College title.
What Shams has done is to make the quest for that elusive title more about inspiration than pre-game locker room perspiration.
On Saturday, it was something to watch as Vancouver College came out and hit 18 threes at what was probably somewhere in the neighbourhood of a 35 percent-plus efficiency.
If collective bloodwork were done, the joke might be you’d find cells resembling an encircled thumb and index finger with the middle, ring and little finger flared in salute.
“I feel like the last game versus Oak Bay (Friday’s 84-70 semifinal loss to the No. 4 Bays), we got a bit away from our team-basketball concept that we are driving home,” added Shams. “So we really wanted to make sure we drove and kicked, and shared and the ball. And as you saw today, we have a bunch of guys that can shoot the ball. When we are playing as a team, and everybody is getting involved, we are that much better a team.”
Chen led four Irish scorers in double-figures, knocking down five triples and finishing with a team-high 21 points.
Garcia hit three treys and finished with 19 points, Lee dropped four triples and scored 14. while Wong hit a pair as part of a 10-point outing.
Michah Mayott’s nine points came off three treys, while Winson Del Rosario and Lucas Tan-Ngo each hit one three-pointer.
Kelowna, set to get a big boost to its roster from the Owls volleyball team which has just completed its season, ran out of gas in the second half.
They were led by the game-high 28 points of 6-foot-5 Grade 11 guard Tarun Saroya.
Deven Johal added 11 points for Kelowna in the loss.
Like Triple-A No. 2 St. Patricks, the Irish are not a big, long-limbed squad.
Yet their cohesion was evident Saturday, and if they’re this dialled in over the first weekend of the season, how much better can they get by March?
“It’s definitely tough to match when you shoot 40 per cent in your first game of the season,” said Shams as the Irish shot the long ball as if in a dream state in a decisive win over PoCo’s Terry Fox Ravens back on Nov. 26. “But if we can keep it around 30 (per cent) that would be nice. Most importantly we want to be playing team basketball, sharing the rock and playing hard defence. We are undersized, so we are going to have to work that much harder than everyone else.”
The Tsumura Basketball Invitational, featuring two 16-team draws, features Friday semifinals in the Super 16 draw tipping off at 6:15 and 7:45 p.m. The Select 16 semifinals will tip off at 3 and 4:45 p.m. All four games will be contested in the South Court facility.
Championship games will be played Saturday at 3 p.m. (Select 16) and 4:45 p.m. (Super 16) in the Centre Court facility.
Games will run all four days (Dec. 4-7) at the Langley Events Centre.
Check out the full draws at VarsityLetters.ca
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