The D10 playoffs will tip off today with quarterfinal action; instead of the usual 8 teams involved, there's only 7 this time around (with GCVI's withdrawal from the league).Therefore, the first place teams (Centennial - Junior; Bishop Mac - Senior) will receive first-round byes.
Winners of today's games will play semifinals on Thursday, while the finals are Saturday evening (6pm and 8pm) at the University of Guelph.
Senior
On the senior side of things, the second-seeded Centennial Spartans and the third-seeded JF Ross Royals are strong favourites to advance through today's quarterfinal round.
During regular-season play against their respective opponents, Centennial outscored (#7) Centre Wellington by a combined 43 points, while JF Ross outscored (#6) Orangeville by 42 points --- over 20 PPG margins.
As it stands, both of those games will also serve as CWOSSA qualifiers, with the winners getting berths through to the "AAAA" tournament.
The game to keep an eye on will actually be a 6:45pm tip-off over at St. James, between the #4 Lions and #5 Lourdes. The Lions have won both meetings this year, but only by a combined 5 points. Certainly, it's a game that could go either way.
Mark's Picks:
Centennial (by 25) over CWDHS
JF Ross (by 19) over ODSS
St. James (by 6) over OLOL
Junior
Like their senior counterparts, both the second-seeded (Bishop Mac) and third-seeded (JF Ross) teams will be heavily favoured to win their games.
Bishop Mac defeated #7 Orangeville by 23 and 26 points during regular season play, while the Royals handled #6 CWDHS by 22 and 31 points during their two match-ups.
St. James (#4) and Lourdes (#5) split their season series, with the Crusaders winning 50-48 and the Lions winning last week, 55-50. Based upon those results, it's certainly a "coin flip" from my pick perspective. The Lions did a good job of containing Lourdes star Craig Valeriote last time out (holding him to "only" 18 points), so we'll see if they can have a similar defensive effort this time around.
Mark's Picks:
Bishop Mac (by 31) over ODSS
JF Ross (by 27) over CWDHS
OLOL (by 5) over St. James
