The Oak Bay Bays are off until Friday, awaiting their next opponent, but are hardly waiting around twiddling their thumbs.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 take days off,鈥� Bays coach Chris Franklin said with a laugh, just prior to the start of the senior boys triple-A South Island basketball championship at Reynolds, where Oak Bay is considered to be the favourite in.
The Bays are the top seed, with Claremont at No. 2 and both teams will wait untill Friday to face their opening opponents.
The tournament began Wednesday night with No. 6 Stelly鈥檚 beating No. 7 Reynolds 54-41 in the play-in challenge game. Stelly鈥檚 now plays Belmont today at 5:30 p.m. at Reynolds. No. 4 Mount Douglas will play No. 5 Spectrum at 7:15 p.m. with that winner moving on against Oak Bay.
Most Victoria basketball fans are expecting a Belmont versus Claremont semifinal on the one side of the pool as the teams are 9-3 and 10-2 respectively in league play, behind just the Bays at 11-1.
鈥淲e have to concern ourselves with whoever comes out of the Mount Doug-Spectrum game,鈥� said Franklin. 鈥淥nce you start looking ahead you鈥檒l have some serious problems on your hands.鈥�
The Bays are ranked No. 5 in the province and their only loss in league play was a 68-53 defeat at Claremont back in mid-December. Oak Bay bounced back to beat the Spartans 65-59 on the Bays鈥� home court just last week.
鈥淲e鈥檙e hitting our stride and I think we鈥檒l be OK,鈥� added Franklin. 鈥淭he biggest thing is we鈥檙e healthy and we鈥檙e happy to be healthy.鈥�
The top four teams from this weekend will advance to the Island championship, which is slated for Feb. 28 to March 2 at Mount Douglas.
