Record Staff
The Vanier Towhees are off to the Vancouver Island AAA senior boys basketball championships this week at Mount Douglas in Victoria.
The Towhees (North #2) play the host Rams (South #3) Thursday night. The top two finishers at the eight-team Islands qualify for the B.C. championships.
Vanier finished second at the North Island tourney, held Feb. 24-26 at Wellington Secondary in Nanaimo. They defeated NDSS 94-51 and Wellington 66-47 before falling 66-50 to Dover Bay in the final.
Mark McGinnis shot 9-for-9 from the field and finished with 22 points against NDSS on Feb. 24 while Dillon Robson added 18 points and Brad Gunter 17. Robson had nine rebounds, Gunter seven and Cam Hughes six.
A strong defensive effort on Feb. 25 paved the way to victory over Wellington. Robson (21) and Gunter (17) led the scoring and also banged the boards well; Gunter hauling in 13 rebounds and Robson 10.
Vanier got off to a solid 26-13 start on Feb. 26 against Island #1 and B.C. #13 Dover Bay and were up 31-26 at the half.
However, the Bays forced numerous turnovers in the second half and got their offence in gear en route to the 16-point win.
Gunter led the Towhees with 15 points and 10 rebounds while McGinnis and Robson scored 13 each. Jacob Wiebe cleared 10 boards.
Meanwhile, at the eight-team Vancouver Island AA boys championships at Ladysmith on Feb. 24-26, the Highland Raiders finished in a two-way tie for seventh with Cedar.
Highland (North #2) dropped their opener 81-53 to Brentwood College (South #3) then lost 84-61 to Ladysmith (North #4).
At the eight-team Vancouver Island AAA senior girls championships Feb. 24-26 in Port Alberni, the Vanier Towhees tied for seventh with the host Armada.
The Towhees (North #4) dropped their opener 109-35 to Claremont (South #1) then fell 48-26 to Ballenas (North #2).
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