High school basketball is about warm gyms on cool nights, and this is one of the hottest boys’ seasons on the Island. It continued Saturday night in the packed Oak Bay gym as the Spectrum Thunder consolidated their No. 1 ranking in B.C. Quad-A by downing the provincial third-ranked Bays 80-71 in the championship game of the Gary Taylor Classic.
Justin Hinrichsen led the defending B.C.-champion Thunder with 25 points while Jay Helman added 24 and Tyler Felt 21. Guard Toren Franklin led the Bays with 23 points with Diem Orser contributing 22.
Hinrichsen, an expansive six-foot-four swing player, will continue a University of Victoria family tradition next fall when he plays for the Vikes, following in the high tops of his dad and former UVic great and 2000 Sydney Olympian Eric Hinrichsen.
Six-foot-eight forward Felt, the defending B.C. tournament MVP, and guard Franklin, the defending Island tournament MVP, will be joining Hinrichsen as part of UVic’s stellar homegrown recruiting class.
Meanwhile, Oak Bay beat B.C. Quad-A No. 7-ranked St. George’s of 91原创 95-73 in the semifinals of the Gary Taylor Classic, named after the legendary late Bays coach, as Franklin scored 24 points and Orser 19. Spectrum downed Triple-A top-ranked St. Thomas More of Burnaby 91-63 in the semis.
The halcyon Island season continues with Spectrum playing at Dover Bay against the Dolphins in a Dec. 30 match-up featuring the top-two ranked Quad-A team in the province. Either the Thunder-Bays match-up from Saturday or the upcoming Thunder-Dolphins game could be a preview of the B.C. championship game in March at the Langley Events Centre.
But only two of those top-three ranked teams will qualify for provincials as the Island has two berths.
