Article By: Vincent BallThe St. John's College Green Eagles took advantage of some costly turnovers and some cold shooting by the North Park Collegiate Trojans to take a 1-0 lead in the junior boys high school basketball championship on Tuesday.
Game 2 is Thursday at Pauline Johnson Collegiate at 5:30 p.m.
Meantime, in the senior game, the Assumption College Lions beat the North Park Trojans 52-38 to take a 1-0 lead in their best-of-three series. Game 2 is Thursday at 7 p.m. at PJ.
The junior Green Eagles won 67-49. They were led in scoring by Ben Kwasnik with 24 points and Chris Brewster with 17.
"I thought we played really hard today and we did a good job of limiting our turnovers," Green Eagles coach Mike Petrella said following the game. "We did a good job of helping out on the weak side and that limited their scoring opportunities.
"I think we played well defensively and we did a good job of getting in the passing lanes and forcing turnovers."
He gave credit to the Trojans for turning in a solid game.
The Green Eagles got off to a good start and took a 17-8 lead after the first quarter by taking advantage of some costly turnovers by North Park and some cold shooting by the Trojans on offence.
The second quarter started off the way the first quarter ended with North Park having trouble scoring and the Green Eagles continuing to get a couple of turnovers leading to points.
But at about the halfway point of the second quarter, the momentum shifted after Jackson Kingshott scored a three-pointer for North Park. Jamie Grant, also scored a three-pointer for the Trojans and so did Cal Hager. That, combined with a layup by Zach Hamed, who had spent most of the first quarter on the bench, brought the Trojans within three.
The score was 25-22 with just over a minute left when the teams exchanged points and with under 6 seconds left Hamed scored a layup and was fouled. He missed the free throw and the half ended with St. John's holding on to a 29-28 lead.
In the third quarter, North Park again had trouble making shots while St. John's continued to take advantage of turnovers and running a patient offence built a 52-32 lead by the end of the third quarter.
The Green Eagles got great contributions from Tommy Gemmell who worked hard on the boards as did Jacob Spencer and Ryan Kidd.
But for the Green Eagles it was their overall team effort that carried the day both on offence and on defence.
The Trojans were led in scoring by Hager with 15 points, Ethan Andrew with 12 and Grant with 10 and Hamed with 10.
"I think we played well offensively," Hamed said after the game. "We moved the ball well, we found each other but we had trouble with our shooting and our defence.
"We really missed Nathanael Penny, too. He's really important to us especially on defence. But we'll regroup and we'll be back on Thursday."
In the first half of the senior contest, the Lions used a half-court trap press to force a couple of turnovers and take North Park away from its game.
North Park, however, was strong on the boards and got a couple of second chances for points to keep the game close. Brandon John got a two-handed slam dunk when the Trojans broke the press on one occasion.
But the Lions had a balanced attack that included five points each from Mike Heron, Austin Tlustos and Brandon Vincent, while Mike King got 4.
The Trojans, meanwhile, got seven points from Brandon John, five from Ak Rai and Dyshane Powell-Hodges.
The Lions led at the half 26-23.
In the second half, the Lions went on a roll early and took control of the game using patience and terrific ball movement until they got an open shot. The overall talent of the Lions was once again reflected in their scoring.
Tlustos finished with 12 points, while King scored 11, and Vincent and Andre Toic each got nine.
"I think we played strong defence," Tlustos said following the game. "We didn't allow them too many open shots.
"We played good team basketball and everyone contributed."
He noted that the Lions can't take the Trojans for granted.
"We have to come prepared and play our game," he said.
North Park was led in scoring by Brandon John with 12 and Ryan Timms with seven and Ak Rai and Dyshane Powell-Hodges each with five.
Timms was proud of his team's effort in a hard-fought game.
"I think we played hard and Assumption played fantastic basketball," Timms said. "They moved the ball well.
"We had our ups and downs but we kept it close and I'm proud of the effort we put in. It's always fun to play Assumption, there's a lot of intensity."
Retrieved From: http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/2015/02/10/high-school-boys-hoops-championship-begins
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