D10 Junior & Senior Finals Previews

3 of the 4 teams in this year's D10 finals were here in this spot last year ---- the Bishop Mac juniors, and JF Ross and Centennial CVI seniors are all making repeat appearances in the finals.

Here's previews of the two games, which will be taking place over at the University of Guelph's Mitchell Athletics Centre (6:00pm Jr, 8:00pm Sr).

Junior - #1 Bishop Macdonell Celtics vs. #3 Centennial CVI Spartans

Season Series: Bishop Mac 2-0 (W 62-48 & 72-45)

There might not be a hotter team in junior basketball right now than the Centennial Spartans. They've beaten some quality opposition (Centre Dufferin, Lourdes) in the past couple of weeks and have actually established themselves as one of the favourites in a wide-open AAAA junior CWOSSA championship.

That said, they're going to have to play an "A" game tonight if they have hopes of beating the Bishop Mac Celtics. The Celts are my #1 team (overall) in CWOSSA and with good reason ---- they're undefeated in D10 play and have just one loss to CWOSSA opposition.

This year's Bishop Mac juniors are winning league games by an average of 25 points per game! Interestingly enough, last year's Bishop Mac juniors and this year's squad gave up the exact same number of points in league play (600 points/14 games), but this year's team has scored more.

Mitchell Wood and Michael Clouthier have been playing well for the Celtics as of late and they will need those stars to continue to shine through.

Erik Sterne (who is averaging 21.5 PPG against BMac this year), Aleks Kaludjerovic and Ed Gray will need to be up to their usual tricks for the Spartans to have a shot in this one. The Celtics are the deeper team (easy to say as they're deeper than basically every team in CWOSSA) so Centennial is going to need another couple guys to step up in the final.

Might be closer than anticipated, especially the way CCVI has been playing as of late, but look for Bishop Mac to win their second consecutive D10 title.

Projection: Bishop Mac 59, Centennial 47


Senior - #3 JF Ross Royals vs. #1 Centennial Spartans

Another year, another JF Ross vs. Centennial championship game. These teams have met in the last several championship games ---- with the Spartans winning the last 3 including last year's 59-57 nailbiter.

Will this be the year the JF Ross Royals break through? It seems possible --- the Spartans have been anything but dominant in league play winning 7 of their 16 games by a combined (yes, combined) 20 points --- an average of about 3 points per game. The latest effort from the cardiac kids was a 54-52 victory over Centre Wellington DHS in Thursday's semifinal.

For JF Ross, Ryan Cook and three-point bomber Brad Crnkovic lead the attack but they have about 10 guys that can step up for them on any given night.

CCVI's attack is led by veteran 5th year forward Rob House and 5th year guard Jay Francis, alongside yet another 5th year player, PG Adrian Varilla.

I think that Centennial is the favourite, but you have to figure that all these close games will catch up with Centennial sooner or later. If there's any year that Ross is going to beat Centennial I think it might be tonight.

Projection: Centennial 55, JF Ross 52