The St. James Lions are thankful that high school games are 32 minutes long.
After a sub-par first half that saw them trailing by double digits, the Lions more than made up for it during
the final 16 minutes of play in their championship quarterfinal game against Bluevale Collegiate at BCI
this evening, pulling away late to a 57-46 victory.
In fact, the Lions used an 18-5 run over the final 8:00 of action to overcome a 41-39 Knight lead after three.
As could be expected, St. James star forward Ryan Higgins played a big part in helping his team to victory down the stretch --- but it wasn't necessarily all with his scoring.
After having put the Lions up 51-46 with around 3:00 to play, the ensuing St. James possession saw Higgins fouled on a three-pointer (he went 2/3 from the line). The killer from a Bluevale standpoint was that the one he missed was the last one, which Konrad Babol promptly rebounded, allowing the Lions to take some additional time off the clock.
Higgins would use his passing to seal this one late, finding Alex Campagnolo inside for an easy two.
Despite playing without guard Stefan Cvrkalj, Bluevale took a 35-25 lead at half thanks to some excellent ball rotation on the perimeter. However, they couldn't muster that in the second half and scored only 11 points over the final two quarters.
Higgins and Campagnolo had 19 each for St. James, while Konrad Babol contributed 10 points and 7 rebounds.
Bluevale was led by Karsten Beney with 16 and Ian Farquharson, who had 13.
St. James will play Kitchener St. Mary's tomorrow in one semifinal, while the Knights will battle Waterloo SJAM in an afternoon "friendly" to conclude their tournament.
Boxscore
BCI 15-20-06-05 = 46
STJ 09-16-14-18 = 57
Bluevale
F. Voll 3-11 FG; 5 Reb, 2 Ast - 6 pts.
A. Zack 2-3 FG; 2 Reb, 1 Ast - 4 Pts.
K. Beney 6-12 FG; 2 Reb, 3 Ast - 16 Pts.
I. Farquharson 2-9 FG, 7-8 FT; 4 Reb, 0 Ast - 13 Pts.
P. Smith 2-5 FG; 4 Reb, 3 Ast - 5 Pts.
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J. Balsillie 1-5 FG; 4 Reb, 0 Ast - 2 Pts.
N. Jovovic 0-1 FG; 1 Reb, 0 Ast - 0 Pts.
Field Goals: 16-46, .348. Three-Point Goals: 7-20, .350 (K. Beney 4-9, I. Farquharson 2-3, P. Smith 1-2, J. Balsillie 0-1, N. Jovovic 0-1, A. Zack 0-1, F. Voll 0-3). Free-Throws: 7-8, .875
St. James
R. Higgins 7-16 FG, 5-6 FT; 4 Reb, 3 Ast - 19 Pts.
K. Babol 4-8 FG; 7 Reb, 0 Ast - 10 Pts.
J. Marleau 0-7 FG; 3 Reb, 0 Ast - 0 Pts.
K. O'Connor 0-1 FG, 2-2 FT; 3 Reb, 1 Ast - 2 Pts.
A. Campagnolo 8-12 FG, 3-6 FT; 7 Reb, 0 Ast - 19 Pts.
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D. Linwood 0-1 FG; 1 Reb, 0 Ast - 0 Pts.
S. Furfaro 1-2 FG, 2-2 FT; 1 Reb, 3 Ast - 5 Pts.
N. Pelizzari 1-1 FG; 0 Reb, 2 Ast - 2 Pts.
R. Kinga 0-0 FG; 0 Reb, 1 Ast - 0 Pts.
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