Article By: Rob MasseyGUELPH — The Lourdes Crusaders figure they can spread the scoring wealth around this District 10 high school senior boys' basketball season.
So far it has worked for the Crusaders as they improved to 4-1 with a 49-42 victory over host Centennial Spartans Tuesday.
"We've got three or four guys who can score between 10 and 20 points a game," Lourdes co-captain Kevin Roche said. He scored a team-leading 15 against the Spartans. "Our defence is really good, too — our man-to-man. We're all really good friends off the court, too. We've got good chemistry."
"We have three or four guys who can go off for 10 to 20 (points) a night," Lourdes coach Mike O'Rourke said. "If we can get all four of them activated in one game, that's going to be the key. If we have one or two that's off that night, it's not as good."
The Crusaders do look for Roche, David Khayipangi, Craig Valeriote and Andrew Chapman to do the majority of their scoring. If all the set plays work the way they're designed, they're the players who will do the scoring.
Tuesday's game finished a lot closer than it looked like it would be early in the match as Lourdes led 16-5 at the end of the first quarter. Centennial chipped away at the margin after that and trailed 26-18 at halftime and 36-32 after the third quarter.
The Spartans went ahead 40-39 with three and a half minutes to play, but the Crusaders reclaimed the lead and grabbed a victory with a 10-2 advantage the remainder of the way.
"We got out to a real nice start and they made some really good coaching adjustments and we're still learning those adjustments and how to counter the initial defence that they give us," O'Rourke said.
"That's something that's coming. We had a little defensive slip, we just have to keep up the intensity there."
"We came out strong in the first quarter and built up a big lead, but they kind of worked their way back," Roche said. "We weren't closing on their shooters too well. We pulled through in the fourth and came out with the win — some good free throw shooting down the stretch."
The Crusaders did hit six free throws in the fourth quarter, twice as many as they'd sunk in the first three quarters.
While Roche led the Crusaders with 15 points, Valeriote added 14, Chapman nine, Khayipangi seven and Stephen Gade four.
Harnoor Samra collected 17 points for Centennial while Chris Jin had 15, Mark Shinouda seven and Matt Cimino three.
Every point in the game was scored by a starter.
"It's been a great start to the season," O'Rourke said. "We looked to come out of the first two weeks at .500 (winning percentage) and we came out a game above and we're continuing to build on that."
Bishop Macdonell 101 Guelph CVI 59
Jesse Kendall's 29 points led Bishop Mac while Adam MacEachern had 23 and Owen Brombal 19. Spencer Swan had 16 for GCVI while Tyler Beaton added 12 and Jonah Hopkins collected 11. It's the first time in at least a decade a team has scored 100 points in a D10 league game.
Ross 65 Centre Wellington 46
Kristian VandeKemp led Ross with 13 points while Khalil Smith had 11. James Scott and Ty Uhrig each netted 14 for Centre Wellington.
D10 Jr. Boys Basketball
Bishop Macdonell 38 Guelph CVI 33
Greg MacEachern hit for 10 points for Bishop Mac while Jack Olson had six. Lincoln Rosebush led GCVI with a game-high 14 while Arjan Jawanda netted six.
Ross 57 Centre Wellington 38
Curtis Gordon connected for 16 points for Ross while Mengis Hiyabu had 11. Nate Scott gathered 14 for Centre Wellington while Eli Hesse followed with eight.
Centennial 55 Lourdes 34
Scoring details were not reported.
D4 Sr. Boys Basketball
Wellington Heights 58 Westside 36
Avery Bilton led Wellington Heights with 22 points while Kurtis Trommelen had eight. Connor Clark and Eric Dunne scored 12 apiece for Westside.
Centre Dufferin 61 Erin 55
Silas Sales hit for 26 points for Centre Dufferin while Quinten Bruce contributed nine. Andrew McEwen had 18 and Matt Napier 11 for Erin.
Norwell 47 Emmanuel Christian 36
Tom Langille's 17 points led Norwell while Eric MacDonald chipped in with 13. Casey VanLeeuwen had a game-high 19 for Emmanuel Christian.
D4 Jr. Boys Basketball
Norwell 26 Emmanuel Christian 16
Ben Keunen and Scott Turner netted nine points apiece for Norwell while James Westrik and Sean Breukelman each had four for Emmanuel Christian.
Westside 62 Wellington Heights 7
Jack St. Germain connected for 14 points for Westside while Blayke Ferguson followed with eight. Lucas Dano had three for Wellington Heights.
Centre Dufferin 57 Erin 27
Centre Dufferin received 15 points from Brendan Lyver and 13 from John Thomas. Callum Smith had eight for Erin while Daniel Napier contributed five.
