Article By: Rob MasseyGUELPH — There was talk of David and Goliath, but on this night it was more the tortoise and the hare, except the hare won this time.
The Bishop Macdonell Celtics burst out of the gates in the District 10 high school senior boys' basketball final, then nursed their lead to a 58-49 victory over the Ross Royals.
"We came out today, we knew what they were going to bring," Bishop Mac's Adam MacEachern said. "We adjusted for it and it went our way."
Bishop Mac led 15-4 at the end of the first quarter and 32-13 at halftime before Ross whittled the margin down to 42-31 by the end of the third quarter. The Royals did get the gap down to six points with 1:13 to go, but Bishop Mac hit their free shots after Ross was forced to foul in an attempt to gain possession of the ball.
"We were preparing for that all week," MacEachern said of the quick start. "We knew what we were going to do and we were ready for it. We're in great shape and we think we've reached our prime right now. This is exactly where we wanted to be."
"The team, they surprise me every day," Bishop Mac coach Trevor Smith said of the quick start.
"That was not expected whatsoever, but with this group of guys, they've proven to me that anything's possible."
The David-and-Goliath storyline would fit with both the size of schools. Ross is in the AAAA category for schools with 1,250 students or more. Bishop Mac is in AA for schools with 501 to 900 students. The analogy also fit as Bishop Mac has gone most of the season with eight players while Ross has 15.
Playing with eight players means a lot of management to avoid tiring too much, or being fouled out.
"We've been working on conditioning all season," MacEachern said. "We've been working on managing fouls all season. We've got it to the point where it's working well for us and we can win big games."
"We had a tournament (last weekend) and we finally came together as a team," Smith said. "One through eight guys on the bench, we realized if we do it together, we're a way better team. Some guys were trying to do it by themselves, but we really came together. I said at the beginning of the game that it takes a team to hoist a trophy and they bought it. It's unbelievable."
The championship win is Bishop Mac's second in as many years after a title drought of 24 years.
Jesse Kendall led the Celtics with 20 points while Adam MacEachern had 13. Lukas Wood added eight and was followed by Chris Poloniato and Evan Hosker with six apiece, Jake Chaput with three and Owen Brombal with two.
Ryan Stulp had a game-high 25 points for Ross while Kristian VandeKemp had 12. Tommy Yanchus finished with six while Khalil Smith and Andrew Folkerson had two each.
Selected as game MVPs were MacEachern and Stulp.
Both teams have CWOSSA qualifiers to play next week Bishop Mac on the road Tuesday in AA and Ross at home Wednesday in AAAA.
The CWOSSA championship tournaments are next weekend. St. James will host AAA while AA is at Simcoe and AAAA is at Brantford.
Junior
While both teams suffered from a case of championship-game jitters in the opening half, the St. James Lions got rid of theirs at halftime and got on a bit of a roll in the second half that they converted into a 54-47 victory over the Ross Royals.
"We knew coming in this was going to be a close game," St. James coach Matt Harper said. "We've been preparing to be in this game all season. We started in November and we worked really hard to be here."
The teams had finished with identical 11-3 records and they had split their two regular-season games.
The game started slowly with neither team able to sink a basket until the game was more than three minutes old.
Ross led 11-8 at the end of the first quarter, but the Lions rebounded to go up 23-22 at halftime. They stretched the advantage to 37-30 by the end of the third quarter.
Alex Durigon connected for 25 points for St. James while Nick Marquis had 11, Keegan Feeney seven, Andrew Sherriff and Nathan Sanvido four apiece, Jeffrey Morales two and Peter Kenny one.
Curtis Gordon had 13 for Ross, all in the first half. Mengis Hiyabu netted nine while Nate Berry had eight, Julian Renzetti six, Adam Dingwall four, Farzad Yusufzay three and Winston Brown and Brodie Beamish two each.
Picked as game MVPs were Feeney and Hiyabu.
The title win is the first since 2002 for St. James.
As is the case in senior, Ross will play a CWOSSA AAAA qualifier Wednesday while St. James will host the CWOSSA AAA tournament.
"We haven't seen a lot of the AAA teams," Harper said. "In the tournaments we've been in, we played a lot of AAAA (teams) and teams from out of town. I honestly don't know what to expect at all."
