The long WCSSAA lay-off certainly didn't hurt the offensive exploits of the WCI Vikings or Grand River Renegades.The clubs piled up the points in both the junior and senior CWOSSA qualifying games held yesterday at WCI, with the Vikes victorious in each.
In senior, WCI led by a slim margin for most of the second half and then outscored GRCI 6-0 in the final 2:00 to win by double-digits, 74-64. Dani Elgadi (22), Adam Anagnostopoulos (21) and Zach Totzke (15) led the way for the Vikes, while Jamal Murray (22), Chuder Teny (15), and Murtada Khamis (12) were the leaders for Grand River.
The win qualified the Vikings for the AAAA CWOSSA tournament in Guelph this weekend, while the Renegades can still qualify if they can beat Brantford Assumption in a play-in game today (4pm, Grand River).
In junior, Shamar Bailey helped the Vikes to an 81-62 win over Grand River in a game that saw several "runs" by both teams.
Bailey, in fact, keyed one of those with an impressive sequence in the first half when he had a block on one end of the court and then finished with a big dunk on the offensive side. He finished with 27 points, while Aaron Grubb, Salim Bagabe, and Adam Piazza all had 13 each.
Aleks Cvrkalj led Grand River with 17, while Vatrik Odouk netted 11.
The loss eliminated Grand River (0-2) from CWOSSA contention while WCI (1-1) will play Brantford Assumption in a play-in game today. WCI is scheduled to host; however, I'm not sure of the logistics of that given that the school also has parent-teacher meetings in the gym from 3-8pm today.
Over in Guelph, Junior and Senior qualifiers were held between D8 #2 and D10 #2. In junior, it was Cambridge St. Benedict posting an impressive 75-45 win over Guelph JF Ross, with Alex Douglas (14 points) pacing a balanced Saint attack. Jake Grant led all scorers with 16 for Ross.
The loss means that for the first time in 11 years, JF Ross will not be competing in AAAA CWOSSA at the junior level --- an impressive streak while it lasted.
The senior Royals, though, will see their participation streak continue after a big win over Kitchener Resurrection (74-41). Scoring details were not immediately available.
