Article By: Tony Saxon
GUELPH — The Lourdes Crusaders juniors made it a Crusader sweep at the CWOSSA AA basketball championships Monday.
Lourdes went on a 17-0 run to open the championship game against the Kincardine Knights and never looked back, getting their name on the CWOSSA championship shield for the first time since 1993 with a 57-27 win.
“Age-wise this is still a really young team,” Lourdes coach Mark Tonizzo said at the Bishop Macdonell gym where the tournament was held.
“Four of our starters are only in Grade 9. If we keep all four together and get some good kids coming up from elementary school we should be even better next season.”
The Crusaders’ toughest game of the day came in the afternoon semifinal, a 60-45 win over Owen Sound.
Tonizzo said they changed the format of the tournament this year and that Owen Sound was probably the strongest of all the opponents. He said Owen Sound should have probably been in the final.
Kincardine beat Norwell 47-40 in the other semifinal.
“We won by 15 in the semis but it was definitely our toughest game,” he said. “It would be nice to have the top two teams in the final.”
The Guelph school led 20-3 after eight minutes and 25-11 at halftime.
Kincardine showed some spunk in the third quarter, narrowing the gap to just seven points with around three minutes left in the quarter. But the Crusaders’ Xavier Guaca came down and drilled a big three pointer to reestablish the double-digit lead and they never looked back.
Guaca led all scorers with 16 points. Noel Amaya and Brandon Vongphadky both added nine.
Lourdes used a balanced attack, hitting both outside and inside against the overmatched Knights. The comfortable lead also allowed him to use his whole bench.
“We only really have one or two pure post players. We have a whole bunch of inbetween guys. Guys that can play inside and out,” Tonizzo said.
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