The Bluevale Knights were able to top the John F. Ross Royals from Guelph 46-38 in yesterday's AAAA championship game.
This continued the trend at Resurrection on Saturday ---- all semifinal and final games were won by the "visiting" team on the scoreboard and the team seated to the right of the scorers table.
The game was a bit of a slugfest throughout, with a lot of tight defensive play. The Royals did their best to contain BCI star Stefan Cvrkalj, but centre Andrew Beney was able to assert himself against Ross' slightly undersized front line.
Bluevale led the whole way, but Ross maintained contact. In fact, things might have been different had the Royals converted some of their missed layups --- yes, many were contested --- but I counted about 8 of them myself.
Early in the fourth quarter, Ross' seldom used big man Drew Padovan scored on a nice turnaround move to cut the Bluevale lead to 6 points.
The teams would go back and forth (with little scoring) over the next 3:00 and the Knights held a 42-36 lead with 4:00 to go.
In fact, the score would remain that for almost another two minutes of game clock until Ross' star Ryan Cook fouled of the game with 2:16 to go. Bluevale's Stefan Cvrkalj made 1-of-2 free throws to give the Knights a 7 point lead ---- but Joel Mohr came right back on the other end with 2 and make it a 43-38 game.
Unfortunately for JF Ross, that would be the final basket for them in the contest. They had a ton of three-point attempts down the stretch but none would drop. On the other end, Bluevale's Andrew Beney put in a wide-open layup in the final minute and Fraser Voll tacked on 1-of-2 free throws to give the Knights the 8 point final margin.
(Andrew) Beney pumped in 25 points while Cvrkalj added 12 in the victory. Ross' quick-as-lightning guard Shamlo Saeed had 10 points and Blake Linthwaite added 9. Ryan Cook found himself in foul trouble and was not the factor he has been offensively for Ross.
He did, however, miss what could have been a huge putback dunk off of a rebound in the first half. Definitely brought back some memories for Ross fans of his D10 finals high-flying act where he took off from just a couple feet inside the free-throw line and dunked over a Centennial defender ---- only to be called for a charge.
As for where to rank these teams at the upcoming 18-team OFSAA championships?
The Knights in my eyes are looking at a 12-13 seed or so. Ross will probably be a 16-18. Of course, it all depends on who actually qualifies, so all this is pure speculation at this point.
Congrats to both the Knights (on their championship) and the Royals for qualifying for OFSAA for the first time I believe since the mid-to-late 1990s.
For more, check out Mark Bryson's Record Article on the win.
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