Article By: Rob MasseyGUELPH — There will be local content in the CWOSSA AA boys’ basketball championship Friday night at Lourdes.
That much is a certainty as the host Crusaders and the District 10 champion Bishop Macdonell Celtics are to meet in the semifinals in the afternoon.
The other semifinal will involve Centre Dufferin Royals of Shelburne, the District 4 champions, and their D4 rivals, the Norwell Redmen of Palmerston.
Thursday night, Lourdes had a shot at forcing overtime with a last-second three-pointer, but they couldn’t get the shot to fall and Centre Dufferin won 59-56 to finish atop their pool.
“All you ask for is a shot,” Lourdes coach Mike O’Rourke said. “You want to get the open shot to make the tie and that’s what we had. We had a good, clean look at it, but the ball didn’t go in this time. Hopefully, next time.”
“That was a good game, but a game we needed,” Centre Dufferin coach Patrick Kings said. “I think that will be good for them for tomorrow going in against Bishop Mac because they’re probably feeling good about today.”
Maximillian Raab led Lourdes with 19 points while Kevin Roche had 15 and Andrew Chapman 14.
Marco Zanette collected 21 points for Centre Dufferin while Doug Costanzo had 15 and Carlo Zanette 10.
Earlier in the day, the Crusaders defeated Sacred Heart of Walkerton 49-37 while Centre Dufferin dropped Sacred Heart 71-44.
Raab had 12 points against Sacred Heart while Ryan Bilodeau added 11.
Marco Zanette had 27 points against Sacred Heart while Doug Costanzo netted 16 and Carlo Zanette had 10.
Bishop Mac had a pair of easy games as they walloped Norwell 101-34 and dropped Owen Sound St. Mary’s 93-20. Norwell advanced to the semifinals with a 35-33 win over St. Mary’s.
All 11 players scored for Bishop Mac against Norwell, led by Owen Brombal with 21. Jesse Kendall added 17 while Adam MacEachern had 14 and Mitchell Wood 13.
Kendall and Wood each had 16 against St. Mary’s while Ben Morris gathered 13 and Michael Ganson had 12.
Centre Dufferin had little in the way of competition in league play as the Royals were dominating, winning all eight league games by an average score of 72-35 and their smallest margin of victory was 27 points. The Royals added two playoff wins to capture the league crown.
“We have an exceptionally good team this year,” Kings said. “We haven’t had a lot of close games within our league and then with the sort of dissolving of the districts and the tournaments, we haven’t had the opportunity to play (many) tournament games. We played in four tournaments before Christmas, and basically nothing in the second half of the season. It’s been tough for us to keep our game sharp.”
Centre Dufferin is to play Norwell in the first semifinal at 1 p.m. while Bishop Mac and Lourdes are to tangle in the second at 2:30 p.m.
Bishop Mac defeated Lourdes twice during league play, but the Crusaders are looking forward to another shot at the Celtics.
“We’ve been looking at some stuff on what they’ve been doing,” O’Rourke said. “We’ve got to play a clean game and get everything going for us.”
The same four schools advanced to the junior semifinals following preliminary play Thursday at St. Ignatius school.
Lourdes and Bishop Mac finished atop their pools and could be headed for a final showdown.
In the preliminary round, Lourdes defeated Norwell 62-49 and Sacred Heart 72-25 while Bishop Mac downed St. Mary’s 69-36 and Centre Dufferin 57-43. Norwell defeated Sacred Heart 41-27 and Centre Dufferin beat St. Mary’s 67-42.
In Friday morning’s semifinals, Lourdes was to battle Centre Dufferin while Bishop Mac was to tangle with Norwell.
Semifinal winners advance to the finals, the junior final set for 6 p.m. and the senior final following at 8 p.m.
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