WCSSAA Senior - Bluevale 51, SJAM 49

(Information submitted via email by a blog reader - thank you!)

Bluevale CI - 51
SJAM - 49

BCI - 20 - 10- 11 - 10
SJAM - 10 - 15 - 9 - 15

Bluevale
Stefan Cvrkalj - 19
Andrew Beney - 13
Karsten Beney - 12

Sir John A Macdonald
Kwame Botchway - 14 (3 threes)
Ben Reyhani - 11 (3 threes)
Edem Ame - 11
Jake Robinet - 8

Game report (submitted by blog reader):

Sloppy game overall that included 17 first half turnovers (BCI 8/SJAM 9). Bluevale put up strong half court ball pressure that kept SJAM unable to enter into the post, shoot a three or do too much else. However, often times the Knights gave it right back or missed open looks off of the turnovers.

Bluevale led the entire game and it was not as close as the score would indicate (this being despite SJAM's constant deny defense and double teams on Stefan Cvrkalj).

The Knights led 9-5, asserted their dominance on defense, went on a 7-0 run and finished the first quarter up 20-10 due in large part to their transition game.

The Highlanders battled back in the second quarter (especially once Andrew Beney went to the bench with foul trouble) to close to a 30-25 halftime deficit.

In the third quarter, with the game slowed to a crawl, Jake Robinet committed his fourth foul. At the time, the Highlanders found themselves down 39-29 but then surprisingly went on a 5-0 run to close the gap to 39-34 before a Bluevale bucket allowed them to close the quarter up seven.

The fourth quarter started with Robinet picking up his 5th foul on a charge, and that's actually when it started to get interesting. The Knights stopped running and seemed to start playing not to lose. Bluevale had a comfortable 45-37 lead due to the slow pace until Kwame Botchway hit a key three point basket. To boot, there was a Bluevale off the ball foul (while in the penalty) with allowed SJAM to score two more on free throws (a 5 point possession!)----making the score 45-42.

With 2:30 left in the game, Edem Ame hit 2 of his 9 second half points to close the gap to one. After that bucket, there was no scoring for over a minute and a half as both teams were obviously exhausted due to infrequent substitutions.

Bluevale attempted to run some clock with about 1:30 left in the game, but after taking :30 off the clock turned the ball over. Ame then hit a layup with :30 to actually give SJAM the lead but Cvrkalj came right back for Bluevale with a layup of his own to put the Knights back up one with 20 ticks remaining.

After a Highlander time out, Bluevale came out with a 1-2-2 halfcourt trap and forced a Brian Reiter turnover. With Bluevale having gained possession, the Highlanders had to resort to fouling. Unfortunately for them, they fouled quite possibly the best free throw shooter in the league in Stefan Cvrkalj. Cvrkalj converted both from the line, putting the Knights up three (49-46).

Bluevale offered full court pressure off the make and the Highlanders promptly threw the ball away again a second time and had to (again) foul Cvrkalj......who again converted both to give the Knights a five point edge at 51-46 with :06 remaining.

SJAM's Ben Reyhani hit a deep three with time expiring to bring the game to its final 51-49 margin.