GUELPH — And then there was one.
The Centennial Spartans stand as the lone undefeated squad in the District 10 high school senior boys’ basketball league following the first two weeks of the league’s regular season.
On Thursday, the Spartans shook off a slow start — they scored six points in the first quarter — to rally for a 72-65 victory in overtime over the previously unbeaten Bishop Macdonell Celtics.
“We didn’t come out very strong, but we finished hard,” Centennial captain Erik Sterne said. “We had a chance to win at the end of the fourth, but it was a close game. This year we really have a strong finishing crew and they play hard right until the end. Considering we were the last two undefeated teams, we were excited for this game coming in.”
The Spartans trailed 14-6 at the end of the first quarter before narrowing the gap to 25-24 at halftime. Bishop Mac was up 42-41 after the third quarter, but Centennial looked like it was going to win when Harmon Grewal dropped a shot in with six seconds to go in regulation time.
However, after a timeout, Bishop Mac worked its plan to perfection in driving the court and having Jesse Kendall connected on a lay-up just before the buzzer sounded to send the game to overtime.
In the extra four-minute period, the host Spartans put the game away when Sterne stole the ball in his own zone and raced down the court to deposit a layup that put Centennial up by four with 45 seconds to go. He followed that by draining two free throws.
“It’s just about making plays down the stretch, just holding your own and finishing strong,” Sterne said.
The starters accounted for all but 12 of the points in the game. Tarang Sharma led Centennial with 30 points as he hit seven three-pointers. Sterne added 26 points. For Bishop Mac, Kendall had 19, Owen Brombal 18, Mitchell Wood 14 and Adam MacEachern 10.
Centennial leads the league at 4-0 and is followed by Bishop Mac at 4-1, the St. James Lions at 3-1, Orangeville Bears and Ross Royals at 2-2, Lourdes Crusaders and Centre Wellington Falcons at 1-3 and Guelph CVI Green Gaels at 0-5.
For Bishop Mac, this season marks a return to the upper echelon of the senior league following three losing seasons. However, most of the players have won D10 junior championships as the Junior Celtics strung together three consecutive 14-0 seasons from 2008-09 to the ’10-11 campaign.
“This group of boys has been very strong,” Bishop Mac coach Marty Kendall said. “They won District 10 and CWOSSA junior as a group. Last year, they were an all Grade 11 team. We finished at 6-8 which was a pretty good year considering we had an all Grade 11 team and (were) very undersized.”
Some of those players have grown since last season as the Celtics aren’t undersized now. The senior squad has also added Mitchell Wood from the development academy in Hamilton and Mike Ganson up from the junior squad where he regularly had 20-point outings last season.
“Our guys fought hard. We were missing two very important starters (Ganson being one of them), but I thought we still could have won that game,” coach Kendall said. “We learned a lot. We’ll be back and we’ve learned what we needed to learn for the next game.”
Lourdes 59 Orangeville 45
Deysean Thompson led Orangeville with 19 points while Kyle Holmes added 16. Maximillian Raab and Ryan Bilodeau each had 12 for Lourdes while Kevin Roche and Andrew Chapman collected 10 apiece.
Centre Wellington 71 Guelph CVI 61
Josh McEachern had a game-high 21 points for Centre Wellington while Sam Goindi netted 19. David Wesley-James hit for 14 for GCVI while Spencer Swan had 10 and Jonah Hopkins nine.
St. James 63 Ross 57
Mitch Marquis struck for 14 points for St. James while Liam McCormack contributed 12. Mike Friesen had a game-high 31 for Ross while Andrew Folkerson added 10.
D10 Jr. Boys Basketball
Centennial 55 Bishop Macdonell 36
Mark Shinouda hit for 21 points for Centennial while Jasmer Brar chipped in with 13. Lukas Wood had 19 for Bishop Mac while Evan Hosker followed with 10.
St. James 52 Ross 49
St. James received 18 points from Keegan Feeney, 14 from Jack Tersigni and 10 from Izaiah Farrell. Daniel Street gathered 19 for Ross while Harris Cornett had 15 and Caelen Ahluwalla 10.
Lourdes 62 Orangevillle 56
Craig Valeriote connected for 29 points for Lourdes while Alex Hudecki had 11. Eric Kornack had 19 for Orangeville while Menglin Song contributed 10.
Centre Wellington 50 Guelph CVI 31
MacKenzie Mathers led Centre Wellington with eight points while Ethan Bersche had seven for GCVI.
Retrieved From: http://www.guelphmercury.com/sports/highschool/article/849815--centennial-senior-hoopsters-come-back-to-remain-undefeated
