North Park Collegiate Trojans have a chance Thursday to capture the Brant County high school boys senior and junior basketball championships.
The Trojans defeated the St. John's College Green Eagles 53-35 on Tuesday night at Assumption College in the first game of the Brant County best-of-three senior championship playoff. The Trojans, undefeated in Brant County this season, finished the regular season in first place and the Eagles finished second.
North Park's victory in the senior division came on the heels of its junior Trojans scoring a 54-41 upset over St. John's in the opening game of the best-of-three junior final.
The junior Eagles went into the series undefeated in Brant County this season.
Both playoff sets resume Thursday at Assumption. The junior game starts at 5:30 p.m. and the senior at 7 p.m.
Third games, if necessary, in either playoff series will be played Feb. 22 at Assumption.
The senior Eagles stayed within reach of the Trojans through the first half as they trailed only 31-24 going into the third quarter.
However, the Trojans put the pedal to the floor in the second half as they outscored St. John's 22-11.
"We started getting on track, particularly Cale (McDonald)," said North Park's head coach Todd Andrew. "They held him down in the first half."
McDonald finished with a team leading 16 points. Marcus Hamilton got 12 points and Marcus Jones netted 10 points.
Matt Digout scored 12 points for the Eagles. Matt Kusnierz got 10 points and Arthur Kogut added seven points.
Defence was the key for the Trojans in the second half.
"We talked about it at half time," noted Andrew. "They were getting to the basket a little too easily. They were creating easy scoring chances inside. We just talked about a better defensive rotation to the ball, better help defence."
Eagles' head coach Nick Esposito was upset with his team's play.
"We've got to protect the ball better and get some points," he said. "It's hard to play basketball when you can't put the ball in the net. We just couldn't get it to drop. Offensively, we've got some work to do. We can't keep shooting ourselves in the foot."
Andrew isn't taking anything for granted.
"It's never easy to wrap it (the series) up," he said. "I expect them to come back hard at us again. We'll need balance scoring which has been a key to our success all year long. We must also continue to keep things tight on the defensive end."
The junior Trojans trailed St. John's 25-16 at the half but they outscored the Eagles 17-5 in the third quarter to take a 33-30 lead.
What did head coach Adam Petersen say to his troops at halftime?
"It was just making them aware of where the gaps were in the defence and motivating them to use the dribble to attack those gaps," Petersen said.
"We doubled our score in the third quarter. We knew we had to elevate the tempo of the game and that's the way we like to play."
Brodie McIvor led the Trojans' balanced attack with 13 points. Vishol Brar and Tyarr Powell-Hodges each got seven points. Crisna Som and Jon Auincula scored six points apiece. Jon Dulmage added five points and rebounded well at both ends of the court.
Jake Brennan scored 14 points for the Eagles. Tim Dawson scored 12 points and Dylan Smith added seven points.
The victory pleased the Trojans because it's the first time the North Park juniors have defeated St. John's since a 2009 CWOSSA semifinal playoff game.
"We've been preaching to our kids that you want to beat the best, not just compete against the best. And St. John's is the best," Petersen said.
"Our kids earned it. They played very well."
Petersen knows that Thursday's game will be a stern test.
"We're in a position that we've never been in before," he said. "I expect them (Eagles) to come out and try to re-establish the tempo they want to play.
"I expect a very difficult game."
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