This promises to be a fine week of high school basketball as the triple-A and double-A senior boys South Island championships tip-off in earnest today at Mount Douglas Secondary and St. Michaels University School and Lambrick Park.
Mount Douglas features a core of Grade 12 players that has the Rams seeded No. 1 in the triple-A tournament, which will produce three teams that advance to the Island championship, slated for Feb. 24-26 at Nanaimo District Secondary.
Coach Chris Ball鈥檚 Rams take to the floor tonight at 7:30 against fifth-seeded Vic High, which knocked off fourth-ranked Royal Bay 56-52 in Tuesday night鈥檚 quarter-final at Royal Bay. No. 2 Stelly鈥檚 faces No. 3 Reynolds at 5:45 p.m., also at Mount Douglas.
The two victors from tonight鈥檚 games will clash in the championship final on Friday at 12:45 p.m., following the third-place game at 11 a.m.
鈥淲e鈥檝e got a pretty strong Grade 12 crew and that鈥檚 definitely helped our season,鈥� Ball said of his Rams, who are led by captains Gavin Cobb (a football star heading to Simon Fraser University) and Harjot Gill. Six-foot-six forward Moritz Wegner is a handful, but is battling injury, and James Huang runs the show at point guard.
鈥淭he ultimate goal is to qualify for sa国际传媒鈥檚 and I think we have a team that is capable of that, despite having three very good teams up Island,鈥� said Ball.
Mark Isfeld is ranked No 2 in the province at triple-A with Nanaimo District an honorale mention. Wellington is also strong.
鈥淥ur ultimate goal is to knock one of those off,鈥� said Ball. 鈥淔or us, I think we can play with those teams, but we have to take care of business at South Islands first.鈥�
Over at SMUS, the host Blue Jags and Lambrick Park Lions are seeded Nos. 1 and 2 for the double-A event, which will produce four teams that advance to Islands, Feb. 25-27, also at SMUS.
Preliminary games are taking place across the city today.
Parkland, seeded No. 3, will play host tonight at 7:30 to the winner of late Tuesday night鈥檚 Glenlyon Norfolk School (No. 6) vs. No. 7 Esquimalt. No. 5 Edward Milne ventures to No. 4 Pacific Christian tonight also at 7:30. The Blue Jags await that winner for a Thursday tilt at 7:30 p.m. at SMUS following Lambrick Park鈥檚 5:45 p.m. matchup versus the winner of the Parkland game.
The scene then shifts to Lambrick Park for Friday play with the final at 5:45 p.m. following the third-place game at 4 p.m.
鈥淭he top priority this week is to qualify for the full Island tournament,鈥� said SMUS coach Ian Hyde-Lay. 鈥淲hile SMUS and Lambrick Park are certainly expected to advance, nothing can be taken for granted. Certainly, a young but talented Parkland team will be looking to spring an upset, while there has been little to choose between PCS, Edward Milne and GNS so far this season.
鈥淎ny number of players from Tier 2, such as Godwin Porlares (Parkland), Frederik Moeller (EMCS), Asher Loenen (PCS) and Chris Ferguson (GNS) are very capable.鈥�
Lambrick Park is led by Austin Somers and Tyler Schindel, while Alec Keech and Lucas de Vries pace SMUS. Piero Berna, a six-foot-three forward, is also a player to watch for Esquimalt should that team get through.
The Blue Jags are ranked No. 2 in the province, with Lambrick Park at No. 5. Brentwood College and Shawnigan Lake are tied at No. 8.
FREE THROWS: Porlares, Gill, Moeller, Spencer Bourne of Royal Bay, Loenen, Wagner, Alec McKenzie of Edward Milne, Leland Savellano of Stelly鈥檚, Glenlyon Norfolk鈥檚 Chris Ferguson and Orhan Tebrizli of Reynolds were named to the Division 2 all-city team on Tuesday. The Division 1 stars included Somers and Schindel; Madhu McConnell, Myka Tang Blumenschein and Jaden Touchie of Oak Bay; Zach Manns of Claremont; Donte Bull and Jackson Leeder of Belmont; and Ryan Hindson and Jamison Schulz-Franco of SMUS.
