Article By: Rob Massey
GUELPH — Hard to imagine there could have
been a better advertisement for District 10 high school senior boys'
basketball than Thursday night's championship game.
"This league is very underrated," Joey
Hasson said after leading the St. James Lions to a 58-56 win over the
Bishop Macdonell Celtics in a thrilling final at the Mitchell Athletics
Centre. "There are a lot of good teams in this league and any team
could've come out. We were fortunate to have a good year and a good
final."
"I always say this league doesn't get the
respect it deserves," Bishop Mac coach Trevor Smith said. "Guelph
basketball is pretty darn solid."
The game went right down to the buzzer as
the Celtics took a desperation last-second shot at forcing overtime, but
it fell just short.
"That's the way finals are supposed to be
decided, I think," St. James coach Bob Sharpe said. "We had two really
good games with them during the year and there was no question that this
was going to be any really tough game."
"I don't know if we could've done much more.
A couple of bounces didn't go our way," Smith said. "The effort on both
teams was equal. It was intense. Either way, it was a bounce. I don't
think we were any more talented than them and vice-versa, but when it
comes to a two-point game, you just have to think about a bounce that
went the other way. That's all it was and you can't control that."
The teams were tied 12-12 at the end of the
first quarter before St. James took a 30-28 lead into the halftime
intermission. The Lions extended the lead to 42-37 by the end of the
third quarter.
"We had a little bit of a lead and we got
too comfortable," Hasson said. "Props to them, that's a great team. We
had to earn that, we had to earn every game this season."
"Both teams are excellent defensively
because both teams can score," Sharpe said. "If you can't play defence
then teams are going to score against you. They've got some great
shooters and I'd like to think we can put some points up on the board,
too."
The win, the second close playoff victory of
the week for St. James, kept the Lions undefeated in D10 play this
season. They won all 14 of their regular-season games and three playoff
encounters. Bishop Mac finished in a tie for second with the Ross Royals
at 11-3.
"We've been in a lot of tight games this
year and some of them taught us what we had to do and we did it this
game," said Hasson, the player of the game for the Lions. "We executed
and our foul shots came through and we won. We're District 10 champs."
While both teams move on to their respective
CWOSSA tournaments next week, neither was looking that far ahead. The
D10 title was the one they both wanted.
"Our goal was to try to get here and once you get here, you have a chance to win," Sharpe said.
"I think the biggest title that they want
and the biggest title that we want is this one," Smith said. "It's
Guelph basketball. It's a great league. Centre Wellington pushed St.
James to the limit, Ross pushed us. It's deep and it's good. This is the
title that everyone wants. Obviously OFSAA would be good, but this is
the one that everybody wants. This is the most important one, the Guelph
title."
Hasson led the Lions with 19 points while
Quinn Feeney had 12 and Mitch Marquis added 11. Alex Mackeigan collected
nine with four going to Brennan O'Connor and three to Erwin Tapnio.
Chris Poloniato struck for 16 points for
Bishop Mac while Lukas Wood had 12, Evan Hosker 10, Jack Olson nine and
Jack Morris and Greg MacEachern two apiece.
For the Lions, the championship win was their first since 2000.
"These guys were probably not as physically
talented as that team was," Sharpe said. He also coached the 2000
winner. "Of course, when you have two superstars like Mike King and
James Gillingham, the two best players to ever come out of St. James, we
were blessed. But these guys, they work hard, they get along so well
and they put their individual glories behind them. They really put
everything for the team in the front. I think that's the reason for the
success of any team -- the team nature."
Junior Boys
The Guelph CVI Green Gaels got stingy on defence and turned up their offence in the third quarter to pull away from the Centennial Spartans on their way to a 46-28 victory in Thursday's junior final at the Mitchell Athletics Centre.
"We didn't change too much for the third
quarter," GCVI coach Rich Tremain said. "We were trying to press and run
the floor the whole game and wear them down and I think that just sort
of came to fruition a little bit in the third quarter so we started to
see some numbers in our favour in transition toward the offensive side."
The first half had been close as it was tied
11-11 at the end of the first quarter and the Gaels led 19-16 at
halftime. They allowed a single basket in the third quarter as they ran
to a 33-18 lead.
The Gaels employed a zone defence throughout
most of the game and that gave the Spartans a bit of trouble.
"Throughout the season, we got to know that
they do struggle a little bit against a zone and we isolated their
shooters," Tremain said. "They have some excellent shooters on the
perimeter and we managed to work our zone so that we didn't allow them
to get the shots they normally get and that sort of froze them up a
little bit."
Lincoln Rosebush led GCVI with 18 points
while Rip Singh had 10, Kyle Kush six, Jerrol Smiles four, Anthony Du
three and Ayden Jackson and Josh Tran two apiece.
Jimmy Omino netted nine points for
Centennial and was followed by Andrew Gray with six, Wyatt Shantz five,
Tommy Nield three and Harris Schaubel and Carter Powell two each.
Centennial had finished the regular season in first place at 13-1 while GCVI was third at 10-4.
The championship win was the first D10 boys'
basketball title win for GCVI in either senior or junior since the
Gaels won the senior crown in 1974.
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