The high school basketball season gets back into full swing this week including a trio of city teams heading to Burnaby for the renowned 55th annual Chancellor Tournament at St. Thomas More.
The McMath Wildcats, Steveston-London Sharks and the McNair Marlins are all part of the 16-team event that tips off on Wednesday.
The Chancellor is the latest in a schedule that has been loaded with tournaments for seventh ranked Wildcats. Their opener against the defending provincial champion North Delta Huskies will be their 16th game of the season already that included three earlier tourney stops.
The honourable mention Sharks are coming off a pre-Christmas trip to California for the Del Mar Beach Blast Tournament at Newport Beach where they enjoyed a steady diet of elite competition. Among them was Santa Ana’s Mater Dei High which featured a roster with six players committed to NCAA Div. 1 programs, including five-star recruit Devin Askew who is headed to University of Kentucky.
It should have them well-prepared for their opener at the Chancellor against No. 1 ranked GW Graham from Chilliwack.
The Marlins will also have a tough test out of the gate — taking on No. 6 ranked and old Lower Mainland rival Charles Tupper.
The tourney concludes on Saturday with the championship game.
Meanwhile, the Hugh Boyd Trojans hope to be making plenty of noise at the 2A level this season and began 2020 by capturing the Langley Christian AA Showcase.
The honourable mention Trojans defeated the host school 59-57 in the title game after earlier wins over St. Thomas Aquinas (70-67) and Westsyde (75-59).
Also down south over the holidays were the MacNeill Ravens at the Surf N’ Slam Tournament in San Diego.
The Ravens went 0-3 but were competitive in losses to Alameda’s Encinal High (53-38), host University City (74-62) and eventual champion Oregon City (46-39).
