There's one thing about D8 junior titles --- they seem to come in bunches.The (#2 seeded) St. Mary's Eagles will be seeking their third consecutive D8 title on Friday evening at the University of Waterloo (6pm) as they take on (#1 seeded) Cambridge St. Benedict.
The Saints will be looking for their first D8 junior title in 12 seasons (2000 was their last one), but as those of us with some knowledge of that era may recall, the Saints were the dominant junior D8 program back in the day.
The Saints, in fact, reeled off 7 D8 junior crowns between 1990 and 2000 inclusive.
Anyways, with a strong core of grade nine talent, the Saints certainly would be early favourites to repeat next year if they can pick up a championship plaque tomorrow.
As for Wednesday's semifinal games, St. Mary's used a decisive athleticism advantage to get past St. David in a 64-43 game. The teams had played a 2-point game earlier in the year, and I though that the Celtics would be able to keep this one pretty close. However, strong performances by three Eagles (17+ points each) prevented that from becoming a reality. Adham Eleeda paced SMHS with 21, while Henoak Albara had 19 and David Nguyen added 17.
George Dumitru had 14 points and Alec Scheffler 10 for St. David. Despite the loss, the Celtics will still advance to the CWOSSA "AAA" tournament.
Down in Cambridge, the #1 St. Benedict Saints got all they could handle from #4 Resurrection before pulling away down the stretch in a 68-55 final.
The Saints used some hot shooting early to race to a 40-27 halftime edge, only to see that lead start to evaporate during a third quarter Phoenix run. An Ali Rashid buzzer-beater put Rez within 4 points (45-41) entering the fourth quarter, and they would trim it to three before a big Alex Douglas "and-one" for St. Benedict re-established a 6-point lead about 2:30 into the final frame.
Douglas, a 6'2" Grade 9 forward, was tremendous for the Saints in the victory, as he poured home 28 points.
This game was certainly decided at the free-throw line, where the teams combined for 73 attempts (that's over 2 attempts per minute of game time!) in a game that took almost two hours to complete. Resurrection shot just 10-for-31 (27%) from the line, while the Saints converted a respectable 31-for-42 (74%).
Alongside Douglas' 28 points, Khiem Tran added 16, while Zubair Seyed (10), Martin Le (6), Justin Malnerich (5) and Vicken Geokijan (3) rounded out the SBCSS scoring.
Rez's balanced attack was led by Prince Dang (10), while Jake Rush and Muyang Iluya had 9 each. Also scoring for Rez were Sean Begy (7), Joe Hunter (7), Ali Rashid (5), Mac Smith (4) and Kevin Mullings (2).
Like the D8 seniors, the loser of Friday's final will still have the opportunity to qualify for the CWOSSA tournament by way of play-in game against the lower playoff finisher between JF Ross and Centennial.
