Simcoe Reformer Article - Waterford Juniors win CWOSSA Gold
Article By: Jacob Robinson
WATERFORD — The Waterford Wolves were not devastated after suffering a surprising loss to underdog Holy Trinity in the NSSAA junior boys basketball semifinals last week.
In fact, that game only served to give the squad some playoff experience as they hosted the CWOSSA single-A championships on Wednesday.
With an early 62-41 win against Woodland Christian (Breslau) the Wolves grabbed a spot in the gold medal match where they happened to meet up with their Norfolk rivals, the Valley Heights Bears.
Waterford jumped ahead early in the all-Norfolk match, and despite some nervous moments in the late going, held on for a seven point, 47-40 victory to claim gold.
Leading scoring Corey MacLean said Waterford’s loss vs. Holy Trinity didn’t give the team any motivation because they were already focused on what they had to do Wednesday.
“That was fine, the whole year we were thinking about CWOSSA, we didn’t really care,’ MacLean said smiling from ear to ear. “We said, ‘We have to win CWOSSA’ and that’s what we did. When we lost to HT, it didn’t really matter to us.”
The Wolves and Bears had already played a game where one point determined the outcome during the NSSAA regular season, so Waterford made it their mission to get up by as many as they could early. The club built up an 11-point lead at the half, but watched as the Bears sharpened their passing attack to bring the score back within five.
Finally, Austin Roloson’s three-pointer with three minutes to play and a pair of MacLean lay-ups in the final minute sealed the deal for the red and white.
“We were thinking about it all year,” MacLean said of winning the tournament. “As soon as it happened, it was all smiles. It was huge. It was great.”
A silver medal was certainly nothing to be scoff at for the Bears. A team that wasn’t assured a NSSAA playoff spot until the final night of the regular season, the club dominated College Heights during a play-in game late last week, and continued their hot streak in defeating the Walkerton Raiders 70-26 in Wednesday’s semifinal.
“It’s been crazy,” Bears sharpshooter Jordan Huyge said of the 2011-12 campaign. “We lost our first few games of the season, then we won a few in a row and lost two in a row — we went to College Heights and didn’t know what to expect, won there, came here and didn’t know what to expect and got to the finals. It was great.”
MacLean led all shooters in the final with 19 points. Perry Wall had 14 for Valley Heights and was followed by Huyge with 12.
The Norfolk junior squads weren't the only ones coming home with new hardware around their necks.
In the senior division, the host Wolves erased a 10-point deficit to beat the Rockway (Kitchener) Flames 57-53 and book a spot in the final. There they faced a powerhouse Walkerton team — a team that eliminated Port Dover in the other semifinal 55-28. Walkerton grabbed the lead early and never looked back en route to a 69-42 win.
Silver was a good colour on Waterford though. The Wolves finished fourth in the NSSAA regular season and had a lot of young faces in the lineup. To earn a big win over an always-tough Rockway team was a great way to end a building season and should give the Wolves plenty of positive motivation and confidence down the road.
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