February 20, 2022 Victoria, BC (ISN) – The Oak Bay Bays Boys Basketball claimed top spot and bragging rights as the top 4A team in Victoria with a 77-66 win over the Claremont Spartans Saturday night at UVic’s CARSA gymnasium.
The Bays, ranked #1* on Vancouver Island held off a 2nd quarter Spartans push to claim top spot in next weeks Vancouver Island tournament held at Mount Douglas High School starting February 24, 2022. For the Bays, their appearance will be their 7th consecutive appearance at the Island dance, and their 26th in the schools history at the 3A and 4A level. Oak Bay defeated top-ranked Claremont in the 2020 season to win the island championship and look forward to their equally impressive 7th consecutive Island title. For the #3 ranked Spartans, they will be hungry for their fourth Island Championship, last lifting the Vancouver Island trophy in 2014.
The Bays would dominate the opening fifteen minutes extending their lead by as many as twelve points to open up a 30-18 lead with 6 minutes remaining in first half as Claremont would find trouble getting second shot attempts off the offensive boards against the larger, hot-shooting Bays starting five. Down twelve points, Spartans Mathew Thompson and Izzy Helmen would ignite their teams comeback bid with their first points from beyond the arc. With back-to-back threes. Ty Pilkington would also add a three-pointer to help pull the Spartans to as close as a three-points of Oak Bay. Halftime would see the Bays hold onto a narrow, five-point margin 37-32.
The Spartans, riding their third period momentum, would gain their first lead in the game late in the third period, going on a seven-point scoring spree to lead 51-50 over the Bays. A well-taken time out by Bays Head Coach Chris Franklin reset his teams focus after the Spartans would show a three-quarter press would be all that the Bays needed as Oak Bay would end the third period on their own five-point scoring streak. The Bays Mathew Magnan would prove all that Oak Bay needed as he would score nine of his 17 points in the game in the fourth quarter.
Despite a sixteen-point, fourth quarter Spartan’s effort, the Bays would prove unsolvable, taking the victory to the buzzer with a 77-66 win to keep their first place ranking intact.
Oak Bay’s Kiran Chadwick-Rupp would lead all scorers with 25 points in the game. Mathew Thompson would be the Bays top scorer with 16 points in a losing cause.
Both teams now enter the Island Championships, vying for one of two berths to the 4A Boys BC High School Basketball Championships held March 9-12th at the Langley Events Centre.
*As per rankings February 13, 2022
