The Vancouver Island championships in Nanaimo were a showcase of British Columbia's best high school basketball teams.
The Dover Bay Dolphins hosted senior AAAA boys' Islands this past weekend, Feb. 20-22, and placed third, with the Spectrum Thunder defeating the Oak Bay Bays in the final.
The three teams were ranked as the province's top-three teams at the senior AAAA level, and the semifinal on Saturday pitting Spectrum against Dover Bay featured last year's AAAA and AAA provincial champions, respectively. The Thunder defeated the Dolphins 77-60 in the semis and then handled the Bays 86-67 in the Island final.
"We knew going into Islands that it was obviously going to be a tough semi match, but we're going to have to beat good teams to win, so it didn't really matter when we played them, it was just a little bit of a harder path to get here," said Spectrum's Tyler Felt, who was chosen tournament MVP.
He said his team was much better against Oak Bay than in the South Island final earlier this month, stepping up their defence to make sure the Bays didn't get a chance to get hot with three-point shooting.
"Today we had great energy, great defence, hit our shots and and it ended with a win," Felt said.
Tyler Verde, Thunder coach, noted that this weekend's Vancouver Island championship was Spectrum's first since 1990.
"Last year, winning provincials, it didn't really sink in, and this year, with how good we've been, it's really sinking in for them how special this group is," he said.
Verde said the Thunder will have "a huge target on our backs" at provincials next month in Langley as defending champions, but said with the way the team is playing on both sides of the ball, Spectrum can beat anybody.
"We won it last year as a bunch of Grade 11s and now they're all a year older, a year more mature," the coach said. "I'm feeling really confident and the guys are feeling good."
In the Island final, Justin Hinrichsen led Spectrum with 26 points and Felt scored 21. For the Bays, Toren Franklin scored 26 and Diem Orser scored 20.
First-team all-stars were Franklin, Orser, Hinrichsen, J. Elijah Helman from Spectrum and Frank Linder from Dover. Second-team all-stars were Hudson Trood and Joe Linder from Dover, Simon Wiwcharuk-Burr from the Oak Bay, and Thomas Okusimba and Owen Duncan from Claremont.
GAME ON … Dover will get to play a challenge game against Oak Bay because the teams didn't play each other at Islands. That game will be Thursday, Feb. 20, at 7 p.m. at Oak Bay Secondary School.
