After making it through the first two rounds of last week’s 1A South Island senior boys basketball championships, the Duncan Christian School Chargers found themselves in a tough spot in the final against Glenlyon Norfolk School.
The Chargers went into the final without three starters, then promptly lost a fourth in the opening quarter. To top it off, Parker Terpstra, who put up 27 points in DCS’s second-round win over Victor Brodeur, found himself in foul trouble.
Fortunately, the Chargers had already qualified for the Island championships just by reaching the final four at South Islands, because they struggled without their full starting lineup and ended up on the wrong side of a 95-22 final score, with Terpstra scoring half the team’s points.
Cohen Floucault injured his knee in the week before South Islands and played only six minutes in the Chargers’ first game of the tournament against St. John’s Academy. Jayden Croswell had a strong opening game, then went knee-to-knee with a Brodeur player in the second round. Conor Hengstler played well against both St. John’s and Brodeur, then twisted his knee in the first quarter against GNS. And starting point guard Simon Deng didn’t play in South Islands at all as he recovered from COVID-19.
With the possible exception of Hengstler, all the injured players should be back in action in time for the Island championships at GNS on Feb. 24-26.
DCS had an easy go against St. John’s, winning 76-28 as Croswell scored 16 points, Hengstler added 14, and Terpstra put up 13. Terpstra led the way with 27 against Brodeur, followed by Hengstler with 18 and Ethan Mitchell with 13.
Queen Margaret’s School lost to Brodeur 49-37 in the first round, then beat St. John’s 54-34 in the second round, and finally lost to Brookes Westshore 72-27 to place sixth. DCS, GNS, Brodeur and Brookes have all qualified for 1A Islands.
Several local schools will be playing in and hosting tournaments in the coming weeks. The 2A North Islands will be played at Shawnigan Lake School on Feb. 17-19, the 4A North Islands will be played at Cowichan Secondary on Feb. 17 and 18, and the 4A challenge game will be played at Brentwood College School on Feb. 21.