The Dover Bay Dolphins are Vancouver Island’s senior AAA boys’ basketball champions, and they get to extend hoops season with a trip to provincials.
Dover Bay Secondary School’s senior boys won the Island title Saturday, Feb. 25, in Victoria, defeating the Alberni District Armada by an 84-45 score in the final.
The Dolphins had already qualified for provincials on the strength of a hard-fought 80-62 win against Carihi the night before, but coach Darren Seaman said players had their hearts set on the Island championship, too.
The Island final was close to start, but Dover figured out how to shut down Alberni as the game wore on and remarkably surrendered only eight points in the entire second half.
“We played our style; we executed everything that we planned on doing, which was good,” said Seaman.
Luke Linder was selected MVP of Islands, Matthew Cote was both the defensive player of the tournament and a first-team all-star, and Frank Linder and Oyama Crouch were also first-team all-stars.
Dover Bay’s coach said the Dolphins are out to get better whether it’s practice or game time and no matter the opponent, and said that the team’s development continued during the Island championship tournament.
“There’s always something that we’re going to emphasize that we’re going to improve on and we were able to execute that improvement within all of our playoff games,” Seaman said. “Every game was played with purpose.”
Also at the senior AAA Islands, the Wellington Wildcats placed third. The ‘Cats had a chance to make it an all-Nanaimo final, but were just edged out in their semifinal against Alberni, 66-64. Wellington went on to defeat Carihi in the bronze-medal game to qualify for provincials.
Grayson Ritzand, Kevin Taylor and Jason Jung were chosen second-team all-stars.
Dover and Wellington will compete at senior AAA boys’ provincials from March 8-11 at the Langley Events Centre.
Also attending provincials will be the Barsby Bulldogs, who were second at senior AA Islands in Victoria. Jonny Durkan and Ches Rednour-Bruckman were selected as first-team all-stars.
For senior A boys, the Nanaimo Christian School Trail Blazers will be going to provincials as well as they won the Island title in their home gym this past weekend. Calvin Vanderkooi was tournament MVP and William Johnson and Jackson Tonsi were first-team all-stars.
editor@nanaimobulletin.com
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