50th Western Canada Basketball Tournament on the horizon

The wait is nearly over as the Western Canada Basketball Tournament presented by Restoration By Trades returns for its 50th edition in three weeks.

The tournament will feature eight teams from British Columbia, Alberta and Manitoba vying for the coveted championship from Feb. 6-8 at Kelowna Secondary School (KSS).

The BC teams competing in this year’s event are the host KSS Owls, Oak Bay Bays (Victoria), Spectrum Thunder (Victoria) and the Semiahmoo Thunderbirds (Surrey).

KSS finished in third place at last year's event and recently jumped to the middle of the pack in the latest provincial power rankings.

The Spectrum Thunder are the defending provincial champions and are at the top of the provincial rankings.

Not far behind the Thunder in the power rankings are the Oak Bay Bays, who are the defending Western Canada Basketball Tournament champions.

Oak Bay defeated Semiahmoo in last year’s final to win the tournament for the first time since 1978. The Thunderbirds are back this year and looking to return to the throne after winning the title in 2023.

The teams coming from the Prairies are the All Saints Legends (Calgary), Ross Sheppard Thunderbirds (Edmonton), St. Paul’s Crusaders (Winnipeg) and Vincent Massey Trojans (Winnipeg).

The first day of competition will feature a three-point shooting contest at 7 pm. The KSS Owls will then take to the court and face the Ross Shepard Thunderbirds at 7:30 pm.

A slam dunk contest will occur on the second day of the tournament at the same time as the three-point contest that was held the night before.