Tamanawis Wildcats climbed a huge mountain but couldn’t quite reach the peak at the BC School Sports Boys Basketball Provincial Championships.
The Newton-based team finished second in the big-school 4A division, falling 92-72 in the final to Victoria’s Spectrum Thunder in front of a capacity crowd at Langley Events Centre’s arena bowl on Saturday night (March 9).
Reigning champs Semiahmoo Thunderbirds finished seventh at the four-day tournament, which involved 128 games among 64 teams in four tiers, based on school size.
For Tamanawis, Saturday’s result was the school’s fourth top-four championship finish at the highest tier of B.C. boys basketball since 2014, all under head coach Mike McKay.
Spectrum took an 11-point lead into halftime and were up by 20 early in the fourth quarter before holding off a rally by the Wildcats.
“We had some mental errors in our zone defence in the first half,” coach McKay noted. “If you had told us we would have held Spectrum to 1 of 13 or 1 of 14 from three in the first half, I would have said we were probably up 10 at halftime instead of down 10.
“We didn’t switch and bump back, gave them the offensive rebounds, I think they scored on every single one of them,” the coach added. “So we got down 13 or 14, and it is tough to play that way for the entire game. I think we had to go to the press defence about five minutes too early but it was kind of our only option at that point.”
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Spectrum’s Justin Hinrichsen said Saturday’s final was a battle against a tough opponent. “Tamanawis is a really talented team that plays a fast pace and shoots the ball well. They have a bunch of good players.”
Michael Adarkwah-Nti and Sartaj Bhangu led Tamanawis by scoring 17 points and grabbing six rebounds each, while Arjun Hehar contributed 11 points and four steals. Adarkwah-Nti was a First Team All-Star while Bhangu and Hehar earned Second Team honours. The Wildcats also won the tournament’s School Spirit Award.
The #4 seed heading in, Tamanawis got to the tournament final with a dramatic 80-79 overtime win over Oak Bay Bays in Friday’s semifinal, following victories over Vancouver College and Heritage Woods.
In the three other divisions at the LEC, Nanaimo’s Dover Bay Dolphins won the 3A title, West Vancouver’s Collingwood Cavaliers won in 2A and Chilliwack’s Unity Christian Flames took the 1A championship.
In 2A, the Fraser Heights-based Pacific Academy team placed third with a 70-60 win over Langley Christian on Saturday. Jaden Mesfin was named a First Team All-Star, and teammate Nathan Chiang was given Second Team honours.
In the 3A competition, Grandview Heights finished ninth at provincials.
All the senior boys scores and awards are posted on bchighschoolbasketballchampionships.com, along with those of recent junior and girls tournaments.
