D8 Senior Final: St. Mary's vs. Resurrection

D8 Final: St. Mary's Eagles vs. Resurrection Phoenix (8:00pm, St. David CSS/Waterloo)

The Senior D8 final has all the makings of a classic contest.

As you likely know by now, the Phoenix and Eagles have played a couple of big-time regular season tilts so far. Rez won the first game in December 56-51, while the Eagles rebounded with a 53-50 victory on a Kueth Geng buzzer-beater in January.

Throw in the fact that there's a D8 championship and CWOSSA berth on the line AND the fact that these squads are bitter rivals and this 8pm showdown at St. David might prove to be the best of the championship finals this week (we'll see what SJAM & Bluevale have to say about that, though).

The Eagles are making their fifth consecutive appearance in the D8 final, while the Phoenix are only making their second appearance in the D8 final in the last 5 years (though they did win the title in 2008).

This one is a coin-flip as far as I'm concerned. Both teams have been peaking at the right time ---- Rez destroyed St. David in last week's semifinal while the Eagles did the same to Monsignor Doyle. One of the referees of that contest said (of the first half in which SMHS scored 49 points) that "it was the best-played half of senior boys' basketball" he had seen in the area this season.

Rez has a distinct size advantage pretty well across the board here (and especially off the bench ---- where their depth may be a key factor). They'll need to use that to their advantage today. As for the Eagles? They need to keep doing what they've been doing ---- which is a combination of solid shooting from the outside and tenacious defensive pressure.

Projected Lineups:

St. Mary's
G - Isaac Lance
G - Alex Thompson
G - Ben Bankazo
F - James Gibson
F - Mike Kasunic

Off The Bench: Kueth Geng G/F, Demar Thompson G, Tony Huynh G, Zak Hannah G/F.

Resurrection
G - Tyler Schneider
G - Andrew Mwangi
F - Mike Tyler
F - Matt Stocco
C - Ryan Herron

Off The Bench: Mike Pereira F/C, Brandon Lee G, Cam Gibbs F, John Moi G, Jeff Rodrigues G, Byron Ramirez G, Jason Chris G/F, Jamie Keil G.

Projection & Pick
I think this one is going to be a single digit game coming down to the last few minutes today. As for my pick? Well, last time out I took the Eagles by 3 and they won 53-50. I'll reward them for that by taking them again (by that number) today.

St. Mary's 58, Resurrection 55