The St. Mary's Eagles made it back-to-back "official" CWOSSA championships, and took home D8's 5th "AAAA" junior title in the last 6 tries, by coming from behind to defeat the WCI Vikings 60-45 yesterday evening in Brantford.It definitely didn't come easy for the Eagles, who entered the CWOSSA tournament as strong favourites.
After dropping their second-round game against WCI (74-67), the Eagles first had to play a semifinal game on Monday morning against Guelph JF Ross, which they would win by a 76-42 count.
This advanced them to Monday evening's final against WCI, where the game started ominously for Eagle fans in attendance.
St. Mary's did a better job containing Viking star Aaron Grubb, who scored 40 against SMHS on Saturday, but Griffin Floto had a huge first half --- scoring 15 points --- as WCI took a double-digit second quarter lead (30-19) before the Eagles closed to within 8 (31-23) at half.
The second half, though, was all Eagles.
St. Mary's cranked up the defensive intensity, and capitalized on several WCI turnovers, going on a 16-5 run (39-36) before a buzzer-beating three-pointer put them up six (42-36) heading to the fourth quarter.
Hot shooting from would continue in the fourth quarter as the Eagles extended to a double-digit lead late in the fourth. St. Mary's led by only 7 (48-41) before two backbreaking back-to-back three pointers by David Nguyen gave St. Mary's a more comfortable 13-point margin with just over 2:00 left on the clock.
Nguyen finished the day with a game-high 24 points, including six three pointers. Grade nine guard Daniel Douse added 11 for the Eagles, while Aaron Grubb had 19 and Griffin Floto 17 for WCI.
The Vikes, who managed their second CWOSSA junior silver medal in five seasons, were arguably the most improved CWOSSA team between November and February, a fact that St. Mary's quickly realized after their defeat on Saturday.
"We came into this tournament thinking we were going to win every game but WCI woke us up," Nguyen told The Record's Mark Bryson after the game.
St. Mary's will be one of three CWOSSA teams participating in a 24-team "Ontario Junior Basketball Classic" OFSAA-style tournament this weekend in Unionville.
