KITCHENER – Round 1 goes to the Resurrection Phoenix.
The defending District 8 senior boys basketball champions led from wire-to-wire on Wednesday, scoring a 62-52 win over the St. Mary’s Eagles. The game was a rematch of last season’s D8 title game, which was also won by Rez.
Tyler Schneider scored a game-high 18 points as the Phoenix jumped to a 7-0 lead and never trailed. The Eagles closed the gap to 31-29 at halftime but the Phoenix went on a 13-4 run to start the second half and appeared to be well on their way to an easy victory.
Appearances, however, can be deceiving.
“We played hard and we used our size to our advantage,” said Schneider, a Grade 12 guard. “They came back a little but we were able to fight that off and continue to play well and make the bigger buckets.”
Schneider was quick to agree that a Resurrection win is always that much sweeter when St. Mary’s is the opponent.
“It means a lot, especially on our home court. These guys are our best rivals in this league and it’s always a competition when we play against them,” said Schneider. “And we know a lot of guys on their team so it’s a good personal rivalry as well.”
Centre Mike Pereira had 11 points and reigning D8 MVP Andrew Mwangi had 10 points as the Phoenix improved to 2-0 on the season. Mwangi was also a monster on the glass, pulling in a number of rebounds.
Ben Bankazo had 16 points for the Eagles, who dropped to 2-1. Isaac Lance added nine and Alex Thompson had five.
Rez looked to have matters well in hand after their fast start to the second half and built a 44-33 lead. However, the Eagles didn’t fold and went on a mini-run themselves and cut the lead to 44-40.
It was all Phoenix after that, punctuated by a fourth-quarter play that was a lot of fun to watch. Rez guard Jeff Rodrigues managed to somehow dribble through double coverage on his way up the court and threaded a perfect pass to teammate Cam Gibbs deep in the Eagles’ end. Gibbs slammed home a baseline dunk to make it 46-40 and then Rez pulled away, leading 62-45 before taking it easy at the end.
This might have been a preview of the D8 championship game that is scheduled for Feb. 22. In between, they’ll play Jan. 12 at St. Mary’s, a rematch that Lance is looking forward to.
“There are things we definitely need to work on but it’s pretty early in the season and it really didn’t seem like either team played to its potential today,” he said.
“We’re looking forward to the next game with them, for sure, and I hope the next one will be in our favour.”
The teams split their regular-season games last year before Rez prevailed in the final.
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