Senior D8 Final: St. Mary's 61, Resurrection 51

The St. Mary's Eagles have done it.

After the core crop of this group of this year's Eagles suffered three straight D8 finals losses (junior and senior combined) to the Resurrection Phoenix, they got their revenge on Friday evening at the University of Waterloo by holding on and capturing a 61-51 victory in this year's edition of the D8 senior championship game.

It was, perhaps surprisingly, only St. Mary's second D8 title since 1990.

In the first half of this one, Eagles' star guard Alex Thompson picked up a couple of quick fouls, but Henry Bankazo (coming off the bench on this day) hit for 6 points during a key stretch that saw Rez PG John Moi also go to the bench with foul trouble (3 of his own).

By the time the dust had settled on the first-half, the Eagles had a 30-21 lead.

Rez chipped away early in the second half, as they keyed on getting the ball inside to their big man, 6'7" Cory Kenning.  He converted an "and-one" and another basket for 5 RCSS points to start the half. 

The Phoenix actually would close to 33-31 before some turnovers, which proved to eventually be their undoing on this night, were a key factor in an 8-0 Eagles run that extended things to a double digit lead with about 3:00 left in the third quarter.

Rez would again, rally though, thanks in part to some long-distance shooting.  Three-pointers by John Moi and Mark Radcliffe would be part of Rez's own 8-0 run to bring things back to 41-39 entering the fourth quarter.

The Phoenix then took the lead early in the fourth quarter on an Adam Schneider three-ball, but that would be the last lead the Phoenix would enjoy.

SMHS' big man, Adam Voll, took over with a put-back and then getting to the line (1-of-2) to make it a 47-44 Eagle lead.  On his missed second attempt, Kenning was whistled for a Rez foul which sent Telloy Simon to the line as he made it 48-44 with another 1-of-2 trip.

After a Rez free-throw and another Voll bucket, Rez's Mike Pereira netted a lay-in that cut things back down to a one-possession game (50-47) and about 3:00 to play.

After an Isaac Lance driving lay-in (52-47), Telloy Simon made an impressive reverse "and-one" lay-in to get things to 55-47 and 1:37 to play.

Rez had one last push in them, as back-to-back buckets by Cam Gibbs and Adam Schneider made it 55-51.  However, Rez would not score again and the Eagles got 4 free-throws and a meaningless basket at the final buzzer by Alex Thompson (except to those of us who had picked the Eagles to win by 8....ahem.).

The big story in this one?  Free-throw shooting.  The usually steady Phoenix shot an atrocious 37% (7-for-19) from the line while the Eagles doubled-up that percentage shooting around 70% (19-for-27).

The win also comes with a ticket for St. Mary's to next weekend's AAAA CWOSSA championships in Guelph.

For SMHS, Adam Voll finished with an impressive 19 point, 11 rebound performance.  Alex Thompson added 14 points and 7 'boards, while other Eagles on the scoresheet included Isaac Lance (9), Henry Bankazo (9), Telloy Simon (8), and Zak Hannah (2).

For Rez, fierly PG John Moi led the way with 13 (I wouldn't be surprised to see him get a few post-secondary looks with the way he played this season), while Tyler Schneider had 10.  Other Phoenix scorers included Adam Schneider (8), Cory Kenning (7), Mike Pereira (5), Mark Radcliffe (3), Cam Gibbs (3), and Tyler Bartley (2).

Boxscore
RCSS    09-12-18-12 = 51
SMHS   12-18-11-20 = 61

Resurrection
J. Moi            4-8 FG, 2-2 FT, 1 Reb, 1 Ast - 13 Pts.
A. Schneider  3-5 FG, 0-0 FT, 1 Reb, 1 Ast - 8 Pts.
M. Pereira     2-11 FG, 1-3 FT, 7 Reb, 2 Ast - 5 Pts.
T. Schneider   5-7 FG, 0-2 FT, 3 Reb, 1 Ast - 10 Pts.
C. Kenning     2-6 FG, 3-9 FT, 6 Reb, 1 Ast - 7 Pts.
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T. Bartley       1-3 FG, 0-0 FT, 2 Reb, 0 Ast - 2 Pts.
C. Gibbs        1-7 FG, 1-3 FT, 4 Reb, 1 Ast - 3 Pts.
M. Radcliffe   1-1 FG, 0-0 FT, 2 Reb, 1 Ast - 3 Pts.
J. Keil            0-3 FG, 0-0 FT, 1 Reb, 0 Ast - 0 Pts.
S. Cordle       0-3 FG, 0-0 FT, 3 Reb, 0 Ast - 0 Pts.

Field Goals:  19-54 (.352).  Free-Throws:  7-19 (.368).  Three-Point Goals:  6-18, .333 (J. Moi 3-5, A. Schneider 2-3, M. Radcliffe 1-1, T. Bartley 0-1, M. Pereira 0-2, T. Schneider 0-2, C. Gibbs 0-2, J. Keil 0-2).

St. Mary's
I. Lance          4-10 FG, 0-0 FT, 5 Reb, 5 Ast - 9 Pts.
T. Hergott       0-1 FG, 0-0 FT, 2 Reb, 1 Ast - 0 Pts.
A. Thompson  5-10 FG, 4-4 FT, 7 Reb, 0 Ast - 14 Pts.
A. Voll          6-14 FG, 6-10 FT, 11 Reb, 0 Ast - 19 Pts.
C. Clouthier    0-4 FG, 0-0 FT, 0 Reb, 0 Ast - 0 Pts.
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Z. Hannah       1-3 FG, 0-0 FT, 1 Reb, 0 Ast - 2 Pts.
T. Simon         1-4 FG, 6-7 FT, 2 Reb, 0 Ast - 8 Pts.
H. Bankazo     3-3 FG, 3-6 FT, 1 Reb, 1 Ast - 8 Pts.
D. Hibbert       0-1 FG, 0-0 FT, 0 Reb, 0 Ast - 0 Pts.

Field Goals:  20-50 (.400).  Free-Throws:  19-27 (.703).  Three-Point Goals:  2-11, .181 (A. Voll 1-2, I. Lance 1-8, T. Simon 0-1).