KITCHENER — Round 1 goes to the St. Mary's Eagles.
Nathan Riley scored a game-high 18 points as the two-time defending champions scored a 67-51 win over the Resurrection Phoenix in a District 8 senior boys basketball showdown on Wednesday afternoon. Jermaine Lyle added 14 and Tesloth Simon had 13 as the visiting Eagles dominated the final half of a game that was tied 30-30 at the intermission. St. Mary's improved to 6-0 with the victory and Rez dropped to 5-1.
"We had a nice long talk with coach (Jason Hergott) at halftime and he told us that we had to start playing like a family, that we were playing as individuals and we had to come together and play our game and play like a team," said Eagles guard Jermaine Lyle.
"So we did that. We started talking on defence and playing together, and when we do that, we can dominate like we did in the second half."
The Eagles jumped out to a 9-0 first-quarter lead before Rez guard Adam Schneider hit a three-point shot almost four minutes in to put the home side on the board.
The Phoenix would go on to build a 28-17 lead in the second quarter but the Eagles responded with a 13-2 run to close out the half.
The second half was all St. Mary's as the visitors outscored the Phoenix 19-7 in the third quarter and never looked back.
"The momentum really shifted. They'd a get a rebound and get up the court and we couldn't get back, we didn't have the legs. They ran it down our throats," said Phoenix forward Patric McGlynn.
"We played very well in the first half, perhaps our best basketball of the season, so that's something to build on."
The Kitchener rivals will meet once again when the regular season resumes in January and quite possibly a third time in the D8 final on Feb. 14.
"I expect to see them in the final and I expect it will be a good game," said Lyle.
The District 8 league will use a tiering system for the second half of the schedule, with the top four teams making up the 'A' division and the bottom three forming the 'B' division. Each team will play one more game against their divisional opponent before the playoffs.
Monsignor Doyle (4-2) will join St. Mary's and Rez in the top tier along with St. Benedict (3-3), which defeated St. David (2-4) by a 73-55 margin on Wednesday to nail down the final spot.
Jamal Hajo and Omar Camanto led the Saints with 21 and 17 points respectively, while Alec Scheffler led the Celtics with 14 and Cole Brenner added 10.
The Celtics are relegated to the lower tier with Rockway (1-5) and Woodland (0-6).
