The Road to Provincials 2015 runs through Prince Rupert

For Northwest teams in AAA High School basketball, this is the week that all of their hard work of the year prepared them for. With three days of fast paced action ahead on the court in the Northwest Zones hosted by the Charles Hays Rainmakers.

The Zones as always, is the highly anticipated tournament on the local schedule, an event which by Saturday will send the winner off to Langley and the Big Show of the Provincials in mid March, while marking the end of the basketball season for the others.

The tournament bring two challengers into the Charles Hays Gym this week, with both Smithers Secondary and Caledonia out of Terrace looking to dethrone the Rainmakers from their title.

And perhaps should they succeed, sending a message to the media of the Lower mainland that basketball is played across the full length of the Highway 16 corridor.

That quest to knock off the champs, may be one of the focus points that head coach Mel Bishop will want to review with his team  heading into the three day elimination tournament.

Reminding his squad that the visitors are here and to get to Langley  they will be ready to challenge the Rainmakers.

This year the path to Provincials runs through Prince Rupert and the opportunity is there for the home side to secure their berth for Langley with some strong games on their home court, in front of a very passionate fan base.

The Northwest tournament gets underway this evening as Caledonia takes on the Rainmakers with a tournament opener set to tip off at 7:30.

The long time Northwest rival is a team that always brings out the best in the Charles Hays teams, so Zones will no doubt be off to a high tempo start right out of the gate.

The full schedule for the Northwest Senior Boys AAA Zones is as follows:

Thursday --- Rainmakers 84 vs Caledonia 35 

Friday --  Caledonia 43  vs Smithers 50
Friday --  Rainmakers 67 vs Smithers 43

Zone Finals

Saturday --   Rainmakers  84 vs Smithers 71 

All Games take place in the CHSS Gymnasium.

Rainmakers Advance to AAA Provincial Finals in Langley.
Tournament takes place March 11-14 at the Langley Events Centre
View Tournament website here

Some of the pre tournament media items can be found below, we will add to them as the three day tournament moves forward.

February 26 -- Senior Boys AAA Zone Basketball Playdowns begin Tonight at CHSS
February 25 -- Rainmakers retain Fourth place ranking heading into Northwest Zones  NCR
February 23 -- No. 4 Rainmakers prepare to host zones
February 20 -- Smithers Basketball preparations for NW Zones (video)

You can keep up to date on developments from the Charles Hays Gym through the CHSS Sports twitter feed.

For more background on the Rainmaker season leading up to the Zones see our archive page here.