It was packed, loud with raucous chanting with the pounding beats of the drumming crashing right to the back of the scull. In short, everything high school sports should be, as the host Claremont Spartans outlasted Spectrum 75-67 in the Island Quad-A boys’ basketball play-in game to advance to the B.C. championship tournament next week at the Langley Events Centre.
The Spartans will join the Island-champion and provincial second-ranked Oak Bay Bays, led by Island MVP and University of Victoria Vikes-recruit Griffin Arnatt, at the LEC.
Camden Sparks scored the first 12 points for Claremont to lead the Spartans into the No. 2 Island slot at provincials.
“It came down to our Grade 12 experience,” said Spartans head coach and former UVic Vikes-guard Brandon Dunlop.
But this Island season has also been about the future with three Grade 10 standouts providing tantalizing glimpses of what awaits the next two years with a trio of Grade 10s — Justin Hinrichsen of Spectrum and Michael Adarkwah-Nti of fourth-place Belmont named to the Island first all-star team and Elijah Helman of Claremont to the Island second-team.
Hinrichsen is the son of 1994 Island tournament MVP Eric Hinrichsen of the Carihi Tyees of Campbell River, who went on to lead the UVic Vikes to a national title in 1997 and represented Canada in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
“My dad taught me to work hard,” said the younger Hinrichsen.
“Nobody thought we would get this far this season. We are a young team with lots of years to mature and grow.”
There is every indication that the younger Hinrichsen will one day follow his dad into the B.C. tournament, in which the elder Hinrichsen led Carihi to third place 29 years ago.
Going sneaker-to-sneaker with Hinrichsen over the next two years will be the Spartans’ own Grade 10 rising star Helman, who also has a family hoops legacy with older brothers and Claremont-grads Izzy Helman playing this week for the UVic Vikes in the Canada West championship game at CARSA and Noah Helman for the Camosun College Chargers in the PacWest championship tournament at PISE.
“These are going to be fun match-ups the next two years [between Helman, Hinrichsen and Adarkwah-Nti],” said Claremont bench-boss Dunlop.
Oak Bay beat Claremont 94-58 in the Island final last weekend. Third-place Spectrum had the right to challenge the runner-up Spartans for the second Island berth into provincials.
Also headed to high school provincials next week at the LEC are the B.C. second-ranked Dover Bay Dolphins, led by MVP Luke Linder, Alberni Armada and the Wellington Wildcats in Triple-A. Provincial top-ranked Brentwood College, led by MVP Milan Pasquale, leads the charge to the LEC in Double-A. Pasquale also carries forward an Island family hoops legacy as the son of former UVic Vikes national-champion Vito Pasquale and nephew of the late five-time UVic Vikes national-champion and two-time Olympian Eli Pasquale. The John Barsby Bulldogs and Lambrick Park Lions are the other Island teams to the B.C. championships next week at the LEC. Nanaimo Christian, paced by MVP Calvin Vanderkooi, Brookes Westshore, coached by former Camosun College women’s star Aija Salvador, and Ucluelet are the top-three from the Island headed to the Single-A provincial tournament.
Meanwhile, it was good night all-round for Claremont as the Island-champion girls’ team opened the B.C. Quad-A tournament at the LEC on Wednesday with a 67-60 Round-16 victory over the Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs of Vancouver. Adia Pye, a provincial team player in both rugby and basketball, led Claremont with 27 points. The Spartans advanced to play the top-ranked Walnut Grove Gators of Langley in the quarter-finals tonight.
The Seaquam Seahawks of Delta defeated the Reynolds Roadrunners, the Island second seed, 85-47 in the Round of 16.
