(Note, due to time constraints, the Dover Bay vs. Kelowna game report will appear Saturday morning)<\/p>\n
NO. 2 VANCOUVER COLLEGE 70\u00a0 NO. 6 OAK BAY 69<\/p>\n
By DAN KINVIG (Special for Varsity Letters)<\/p>\n
LANGLEY \u2014 To break a historic curse, you need a little magic.<\/p>\n
And while \u201ccurse\u201d is probably too strong a word for something as as insignificant in the grand scheme of the universe as a high school basketball championship drought, the fact remains that the Vancouver College Fighting Irish haven\u2019t won a B.C. senior boys title since 1967. That\u2019s a span of 59 years.<\/p>\n
If the Irish were looking for a little magic, though, they got it in spades on Friday night.<\/p>\n
Left for dead in their 4A semifinal match-up vs. the Oak Bay Bays, trailing by 11 points with 90 seconds left in regulation, Vancouver College closed the game on a stunning 12-0 run, snatching a 70-69 victory from the jaws of defeat.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ll be back in the LEC\u2019s Arena Bowl on Saturday (7:45 p.m. tip-off) with a chance to make history, facing the winner of the late semi between Dover Bay and Kelowna.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need a moment like this to make the story a little bit sweeter,\u201d marveled head coach Ryan Shams, who ran over to the Fighting Irish fan section on the west baseline after the final buzzer sounded to join the epic celebration.<\/p>\n
\u201cI blacked out. I\u2019m going to have to watch the tape back and see what happened, because that was just a blur. The boys never gave up, and they stuck together. We\u2019re going to the \u2019ship now. It\u2019s crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crazy barely covers it.<\/p>\n
The Bays, up 29-27 at the half, seized control of the game with a 17-1 run to end the third quarter. Defensively, they did an incredible job of keeping the Irish\u2019s high-octane transition game under wraps \u2013\u00a0in fact, Van College rarely got out on the break at all. Meanwhile at the offensive end, Grade 11 guard\/forward Simon Wiwcharuk-Burr was posing questions the Irish couldn\u2019t answer, scoring 14 points in the frame as the Victoria squad took a 53-38 lead to the fourth.<\/p>\n
Oak Bay maintained a vise-grip on the proceedings into the dying minutes. With two minutes left, Ty Humber of the Bays saw his fast-break dunk attempt rattle out. But Oak Bay\u2019s lead (67-58) was still comfortable at that point, and Wiwcharuk-Burr\u2019s putback with 1:30 left in regulation made it 69-58.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That was the last point the Bays would score.<\/p>\n
Vancouver College\u2019s 1-2-2 zone press started causing chaos, and they scored seven points in the blink of an eye, capped by Nathan Chen\u2019s and-one layup. It was suddenly 69-65, and still 1:01 left on the clock. Game on.<\/p>\n
The Irish continued to cause havoc on defence, grappling to earn a jump ball \u2013 possession arrow to Van College. Senior guard Lucas Tan-Ngo was subsequently fouled on a three-point attempt, and while he made just 1-of-3 at the line, he rebounded his last miss, and the ball was rotated back to him on the left wing\u2026 and he drilled a three.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tie game. 19.1 seconds left. Can you believe it?<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/DK-Olin-Lakos-Ashton-Wong.jpg\")
Oak Bay\u2019s Olin Lakos is defended by Vancouver College\u2019s Ashton Wong during the B.C. senior boys -A basketball championships Final Four round 03.06.26 at
the Langley Event Centre. (Photo by Dan Kinvig for Varsity Letters 2026. All Rights Reserved)<\/p>\n
After a timeout, Oak Bay\u2019s Olin Lakos drove to the rim for a highly contested right-handed layup attempt, but it clanged off the rim. Van College transitioned from defence to offence in a hurry, and Ethan Chiu drew a foul on his way to the bucket.<\/p>\n
3.1 seconds left. Two free throws.<\/p>\n
\u201cBiggest moment of my life,\u201d Chiu said afterward. \u201cI knew my teammates, my brothers, they all had my back. It\u2019s an amazing feeling.<\/p>\n
\u201cNerves? For sure. I was literally shaking at the line. Took a lot of deep breaths, calmed myself down, and I hit the shot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chiu\u2019s first attempt went through to make it 70-69. His second attempt missed, but by the time Oak Bay secured the rebound, they had no choice but to hoist a desperation heave from beyond halfcourt that fell well short.<\/p>\n
Pandemonium.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels amazing,\u201d Tan-Ngo said after emerging from the celebratory mosh pit at centre court.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the goal we\u2019ve had since the start of the season\u00a0. . . and we\u2019ve never wavered. Now we have the opportunity to do it. We\u2019ve got 40 minutes to prove we\u2019re the best team in this province, and I know each and every one of the guys in that locker room is going to prove it.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for the fact Van College hasn\u2019t won it all since 1967? Tan-Ngo said they\u2019ve \u201cheard about it a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a running thing at our school,\u201d he said. \u201cBut each and every one of us in that locker room, we\u2019re ready. We\u2019re ready to break that curse.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bays have been waiting a long time in their own right for a senior boys basketball championship \u2013\u00a0Oak Bay\u2019s last one was in 1977.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Head coach Diego Maffia was eloquent in the aftermath of a painful result.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to hurt for a while, and that\u2019s natural,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve been there before in the same circumstance, and there\u2019s nothing you can do about it \u2013\u00a0it hurts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBut one of the things we told our guys is, that\u2019s why we play the game. That\u2019s why basketball is basketball, that\u2019s why March is March. That\u2019s the beauty of the sport, the beauty of provincials \u2013\u00a0things like that happen. You think you have the game under control, and unfortunately, a couple plays happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cYesterday it was us making the game-winner (in the quarter-finals vs. Tamanawis), and today, we\u2019re on the wrong side. But again, it happens. It\u2019s March. It\u2019s tough to say anything to these guys, because of how attached we are and what we\u2019ve been through.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wiwcharuk-Burr, who scored the winning bucket for Oak Bay in the quarters, was a monster once again in the semis, posting a huge double-double (23 points, 13 rebounds). Marcus Kao added 22 points for the Bays, who will surely lament the fact they lost the turnover battle by a 22-6 count.<\/p>\n
Chen\u2019s 25 points were a game-high for Van College, and Tan-Ngo added 18 points and spearheaded the late defensive surge, finishing with seven steals on the night. Ashton Wong also scored in double digits for the Irish, with 11 points to go with 13 boards.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a crazy tournament,\u201d Shams marveled. \u201cWe\u2019re just taking it one game at a time. We need one more win, and then we\u2019re good to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re reading this story or viewing these photos on any website other than one belonging to a university athletic department, it has been taken without appropriate permission. In these challenging times, true journalism will survive only through your dedicated support and loyalty. VarsityLetters.ca and all of its exclusive content has been created to serve B.C.\u2019s high school and university sports community with hard work, integrity and respect. Feel free to drop us a line any time at howardtsumura@gmail.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Note, due to time constraints, the Dover Bay vs. Kelowna game report will appear Saturday morning) NO. 2…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520176,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[49,48,55],"class_list":["post-520175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}