Article By: Rob Massey
GUELPH – The Bishop Macdonell Celtics hung
on to the ball to remain undefeated in District 10 high school senior
boys' basketball play.
Chris Poloniato of the Celtics shuffled a
little as he dribbled the ball uncontested for about three minutes of
the final eight-minute quarter, then sank a pair of free throws in the
final 30 seconds Tuesday as the Celtics squeezed by the Centennial
Spartans 55-52 at Centennial.
"I had some guys yelling 'He's going to
dribble off his foot, he's going to mess up sooner or later,' so I got
kind of nervous and then their coach (Rob Conroy) started yelling what
plays they were going to run on defence so while I was dribbling, I had
to strategize what we were going to do to counter their blitz play,"
Poloniato said.
The blitz play was when Centennial put
pressure on the ball carrier and that came with about 30 seconds to go.
The game had seen plenty of end-to-end
action until Bishop Mac was handed the opportunity to kill some time off
the clock.
"That came about unexpectedly," Bishop Mac
coach Trevor Smith said. "Chris was looking to run a play, but they
never closed out. It wasn't something that we though of by any means,
but something that we just kind of went with and, luckily, it worked out
in our favour and Chris was able to knock down some really clutch free
throws."
"I'm streaky, but I can hit them when it matters," Poloniato said of his free-throw shooting."
The Celtics went with six players for most
of the game and the stall turned out to be a welcome thing for them.
"It was a good chance to catch our breath
and we'll take every chance we can to do that," Smith said.
Centennial led 19-12 at the end of the first
quarter before Bishop Mac battled back for a 29-26 lead at halftime.
The host Spartans went ahead again in the third quarter as they carried a
45-43 lead into the final quarter.
Poloniato led Bishop Mac with 18 points
while Lukas Wood had 13, Jake Chaput nine and Evan Hosker eight.
Jasmer Brar had a game-high 22 points for
Centennial while Chris Jin followed with 11 and Mark Shinouda chipped in
with eight.
"We've had a couple of close games, but we've managed to stay undefeated so far," Smith said.
The Celtics and St. James Lions lead the
league at 5-0 and are to meet Thursday at St. James. Ross is at 4-1,
Centre Wellington Spartans are at 2-2, Centennial's at 2-4, Lourdes
Crusaders and Orangeville Bears are at 1-4 and Guelph CVI Green Gaels
are at 0-5.
Bishop Mac is the reigning champions as the
Celtics won the league title in 2012-13 and 2013-14. Jesse Kendall, Owen
Brombal and Adam MacEachern are gone from that team, but four members
are back – Wood who's in Grade 12 and Poloniato, Chaput and Hosker who
played senior last season, but were in Grade 10.
"We're still pretty young," Smith said. "You
see those guys play together and they look much older. We're kind of
lucky that they've played together so long because the chemistry's
already there."
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