AAAA CWOSSA: Junior Preview

And now, on to our juniors!

Pool A

Grand River - WCSSAA #1 

St. Mary's - D8 #1

Centre Wellington - D10 #2

Wow.  Another solid pool with (arguably) the top two teams in CWOSSA squaring off (Grand River and St. Mary's).  As for Centre Wellington?  Oh, they're just a team that upset Grand River about a month ago in the semifinals of the Purple & Gold tournament, so they are no slouch either!

Grand River looked very strong in their WCSSAA finals win over Eastwood.  With 6 (or 7) guys that can comfortably shoot the three, if they get hot, teams are in trouble.  The Rens are led by Murtada Khamis and Jamal Murray, but Adi Trtovac and Joedey Wonch-Castiglione are also capable of leading their offensive attack most nights.  David Bajic is a great pure-shooter off the bench, while 6'4" Petar Petkovic provides a solid defensive and rebounding presence down low.

As good as Grand River looked against Eastwood, St. Mary's might have looked even better in their D8 finals win over St. David.  The Eagles also have a ton of guys who can shoot the three, while Mike Blumel is one of the premier junior forwards in CWOSSA.  Grade 10s Jermaine Lyle and Nathan Riley can slice up the defense with their penetration.

Back in December, Grand River came back from a 10-point deficit to beat the Eagles in the final of the SJAM tournament, although Blumel was out at that time for SMHS.

Meanwhile, CWDHS is a bit of a darkhorse in the pool, but with one of the top handful of players in CWOSSA (Josh McEachern) they could potentially spring an upset and advance through to the semifinals.  

Pool Predictions

St. Mary's 2-0

Grand River 1-1

CWDHS 0-2

Pool B

JF Ross - D10 #1

St. John's - D5 #1

Eastwood - WCSSAA #2

On their home floor, and with a lot of depth, it seems to me as though the JF Ross Royals should be considered strong front-runners on the other half of the draw.

With grade tens Andrew Folkerson, Vlad Vamanu and Mo Hussien leading the way, the Royals went undefeated in the difficult D10 league.  Like their senior squad, this team can go 10ish deep with limited drop-off.

Expect for the Royals to push the pace (and use their trademark pressure defense) in both of their games.

The Eastwood Rebels and St. John's Green Eagles will (likely) fight things out in their 3:30pm game for the right to advance through to the semifinals.  Eastwood looked very strong in their WCSSAA semifinal win against WCI, but were brought back down to earth in the finals by a strong Grand River effort.  Izzy Nemeth, Tre Nicholson and Ousmane Kromah provide some great athleticism, but their (relative lack of) depth --- and only 10 players on the roster --- may come into play in their second game with a short turnaround.

St. John's is coming off yet another strong season in D5, where they captured yet another BCSSAA championship, and they are making their 3rd consecutive CWOSSA appearance.  Guard Adrian Mendoza keys an attack that can put up some high-scoring totals.  They may have flown in under the radar (no pun intended) but I wouldn't be surprised to see them advance through to the semifinals, especially since they play Eastwood after the Rebs have already played one game.

I'd say that ECI - SJC game will be the game to watch in this pool.

Pool Predictions

JF Ross 2-0

St. John's 1-1 (or 0-2 if lose to ECI)

Eastwood 0-2 (or 1-1 if beat SJC)

Semifinals and Finals

Semifinals

St. Mary's over St. John's

Grand River over JF Ross

Championship

St. Mary's over Grand River - again, another single digit game.