It is a whirlwind hoops week criss-crossing Greater Victoria for the Helman clan. Noah Helman, a six-foot-four sophomore engineering student and PacWest second-team all-star, leads the host and second-seed Camosun College Chargers into the conference men’s basketball championship tournament at PISE gym on the Interurban Road campus.
Younger brother Izzy Helman, also out of the Claremont Secondary Spartans, is a rookie standout for the University of Victoria Vikes, who will play the University of Winnipeg Wesmen in the sa国际传媒 West final Friday night at CARSA gym. A third Helman still at Claremont, Elijah, was named to the Quad-A Island high school second all-star team and was playing with the Spartans against Spectrum in a play-in game Wednesday night to see which team advances to the sa国际传媒 tournament next week.
The top-seed Vancouver Island University Mariners, meanwhile, boast three all-stars as they head down-Island for the PacWest championship with Tori Odom and Richard Henderson named to the conference first team and Akoi Yuot to the second team.
Odom, from Denham Springs, Louisiana, was also named conference MVP and defensive player of the year. Former UVic Vikes player Matt Kuzminski was selected PacWest coach of the year for leading VIU to an undefeated regular season (17-0).
As the top-two seeds, Camosun (12-6) and VIU have earned byes into the semifinals on Friday. Third-seed Capilano University (11-7) meets sixth-seed Okanagan College (4-13) in the quarter-finals today at 3 p.m., while No. 4 Langara College (9-9) plays No. 5 Douglas College (7-11) at 8 p.m.
Camosun will meet the winner of the Capilano-Okanagan game at 3 p.m. in the semifinals Friday. VIU gets the winner of the Langara-Douglas quarter-final in the other semifinal Friday at 8 p.m. The championship game is Saturday at 8 p.m. and the bronze-medal game earlier that afternoon at 3 p.m.
The Mariners are looking for the eighth conference championship in team history, dating from 1981-82 to last season. They have reached the conference championship game 21 times. The VIU period of success has been most pronounced recently with five PacWest championships since 2014-15.
VIU has also made an impact in women’s basketball with four conference championships since 2012-13 including back-to-back titles in 2018-19 and 2019-20. Camosun won its lone women’s championship in 2008-09. The conference championship tournament began in 1970-71. The defending champions are the Okanagan College Coyotes.
Top-ranked entering the 2022-23 women’s tournament at PISE is Capilano (16-2) followed by VIU (15-2) as the second seed. The Mariners are led by conference MVP Harriette Mackenzie, first-team all-star Ranika Guyton, second-team all-star C.J. Buckley and all-rookie-team selection Kiayra Hohlweg.
Host Camosun (10-8) is the third seed and paced by PacWest first-team all-star Tegan Michel and second-team all-star and conference defensive-player-of-the-year Rhiannon Ware. Douglas (9-9), Okanagan (7-10) and Langara (5-13) are the fourth-through sixth seeds.
The Chargers at No. 3 open in the quarter-finals today at 5:30 p.m. against No. 6 Langara. The other quarter-final features Douglas and Okanagan at 12:30 p.m. VIU at No. 2 gets a bye and will meet the winner of Camosun-Langara on Friday at 12:30 p.m. in an anticipated all-Island semifinal. The other semifinal on Friday will have No. 1 Capilano versus the winner of Douglas-Okanagan at 5:30 p.m.
The women’s championship game is Saturday at 5:30 p.m. with the bronze-medal game at 12:30 p.m.
PacWest has two berths into the men’s Canadian Colleges Athletic Association national tournament at SAIT in Calgary from March 16-19. There is one PacWest berth available for the women’s CCAA national championships at Mohawk College in Hamilton, Ont., from March 15-18.
