Article By: Rob MasseyGUELPH — The Ross Royals scored 70 points in winning Tuesday, but feel their defensive play will be the key to any success they achieve in District 10 senior boys' basketball this season.
"We're really working hard on our defence," Ross coach Bill Price said. "I feel that we're a bit bigger than we've been the last couple of years, which is nice, but I also feel that we're deeper athletically so we want to up that ante and defence has a lot to do with that. If you're athletic, you can play better defence … Offence can come and go, but if you're always strong on defence then you're in a good position, usually."
"Or identity this year is definitely defence," Ross captain Kristian VandeKemp said. "We're a very, very good defensive team when we put our heads to it. Our offence hasn't always been there, especially the first game (a 45-44 win over the St. James Lions), but we've always been able to fall back on our defence."
The Royals led all the way Tuesday as they dropped the Guelph CVI Green Gaels 70-34 for their third win in as many league outings. Ross held quarter leads of 19-9, 30-14 and 54-25.
VandeKemp led the Royals with 19 points while Khalil Smith had 13 and Ryan Stulp netted 12.
Jonah Hopkins had seven for GCVI while Spencer Swan collected six and Tyler Beaton had five.
The Royals are usually one of the final teams to get all their players out to practice due to the annual success of the school's football team. Quite often they've held practices with only a handful of players and had pre-season games with a short bench. This year, they decided to do things a little differently.
"After years and years and years waiting for football to end and being a coach at football, usually, I decided that we're not doing a pre-season," Price said. "We'll just practise."
A factor in making that decision might have been the experience level of the Royals.
"We have a bunch of guys who've been together for a couple of years," Price said. "A bunch of these guys also played on (Guelph Youth Basketball Association's) under-17 team so there's a nice unity and some chemistry."
As Price also coaches that under-17 team, he knew what to expect of most of the Ross players and they also knew his style.
"They're all friends. They've all been together for a while and they've been with me for a while," he said. "That's always helpful. The words I'm using, they understand. The terminology we're using in practice, I can say it to anybody and they get it and that's nice."
"The intensity is different," VandeKemp said of this year's Royals. "Last year we had a lot of guys who were new to senior basketball. This year it's like we've all been here, we've been around."
Centennial 65 Orangeville 57
Matt Cimino had 18 points for Centennial and Deysean Thompson had the same total for Orangeville.
Lourdes 47 St. James 45
Lourdes received 16 points from Kevin Roche and 13 from Kevin Khayipangi while St. James got 16 from Zach McClenaghan and 12 from Mitch Marquis.
Bishop Macdonell 64 Centre Wellington 39
Jesse Kendall connected for 19 points for Bishop Mac while Evan Hosker added 17. Ty Uhrig had 15 and James Scott eight for Centre Wellington.
