Watching warmup and seeing the huge size advantage the Pauline Johnson Collegiate Thunderbirds had on their guests, you'd think the St. John's Green Eagles might have been intimidated.
Well, someone forgot to tell Adam Peters and his teammates.
Peters was one of two players with eight points, while two others were in double digits, as the Green Eagles cruised to a 60-42 win on the first night of the senior boys basketball season.
"It's a pretty good start to the season," Peters said. "We just really work hard as a team and just try to work together as a unit. For us, it's not about the individual stats, but it's about what the whole team does to get the win."
And that was evident from the beginning.
After knocking down a pair of three-pointers early, the Green Eagles swarmed their much larger hosts at both ends of the court to gain a 12-8 lead.
By halftime, the Green Eagles increased that to 37-17, thanks to a very skilled attack, and a will to get dirty defensively. Every time the they created a turnover, the Green Eagles seemed to convert it into a fast break to break open the game.
"We try to use our speed to our advantage," Peters said.
"We really wanted to push the ball up the floor hard and were able to do that. We wanted to also play tough defence and make sure we boxed out."
Though the Thunderbirds stuck around, the Green Eagles used their speed to make it 50-32 after three quarters. And, a number of times, St. John's would crash the boards at both ends with abandon to get the edge.
"It's always tough playing defence, regardless of who you play against," Peters said.
"This year defence and the fast break is our bread and butter. You always have to work hard and it's something we all pride ourselves on."
After the game, Peters said the mood in the dressing room was "pretty happy."
"We all thought we did relatively well and it's a great start to what we hope is a strong season. I think we can make a lot of noise."
While the Green Eagles were content with its first regular season game of the season, so were the Thunderbirds.
"I thought we competed well," Dakota Brush said. "We knew they're one of the teams to beat. I think we did a great job of not giving up and keep fighting until the end.
"We knew we were going to be in tough" he said. "They have a really skilled team and we knew we were going to have our hands full and we kept fighting. That's our team motto, never give up."
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Senior results
SJC 60 PJC 42
SJC: Cam Post 11, James Terejko 10, Adam Peters 8, Connor Kuzmich 8, Steve Szasz 5, Tim Dawson 5, Dylan Smith 4, Mike Beal 4, David Smith 2.
PJC: Dakota Brush 13, Dakotta Robinson, Dylan Williams 7, Dave Knevel 5, Mike Knevel 4, Austin Roloson 2.
ACS 48, BCI 46
BCI: Chris Gorski 19, Ben Candy 10, Mackenzie Mark 10.
ACS: No scorers submitted.
Junior results
SJC 65, PJC 41
SJC: Lucas Hagar 8, Matt Knight 2, Mo Harriri 2, Zach Dawson 9, Tyler Bergey 10, Austin Lombardi 8, Adrian Mendoza 19, Jordan Nichols 6, Nick Koehler 1, Neil Wiacek 2.
PJC: Swapnil Sharma 18, Darius Benjamin 2, Aaron Kani 5, Austin Galbraith 3, Cayne Hill 2, Justin Appleby 3, Austin Wagenaar 10.
ACS 64, BCI 27
BCI: Dalton Mark 15, Zach White 9, Will Simpson 2.
ACS: Mike King 20, Tanner Baldin 10, Mike Heron 10.
Retrieved From: http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/2012/12/04/senior-eagles-work-together-to-beat-t-birds
