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Monday, November 26, 2012

D8: Regular Season Tips Off on Monday

Yes, it's here --- regular season basketball.

The D8 is set to tip it's schedule today, with 7 teams competing in both the junior and senior leagues (Woodland CHS is the new addition to the senior circuit).

Today's games (3:30pm JR / 5:00pm SR) feature Woodland at Resurrection, St. David at St. Mary's and Rockway at Monsignor Doyle.

Guess I'll start my picks now --- I'll go with the three home squads in senior action today.

I'll be previewing both the junior and senior D8 leagues on Wednesday.

Senior Royals, Junior Lions Take Titles

A couple preseason tournaments to get caught up on:

Senior Royals Win at CWDHS

The Centre Dufferin DHS Royals showed some early season promise over the weekend in Fergus, winning the CWDHS senior invitational by a 67-54 final over Bishop Macdonell (Guelph) in the championship game.

The Celtics defeated Kitchener Grand River in one semifinal, while CDDHS defeated Jacob Hespeler of Cambridge in their semifinal game.

The Royals also handled Guelph St. James in the first game of the tournament.

Junior Lions Take Tip-Off

Like their senior counterparts, the junior Assumption Lions also were victorious over the weekend in the Brant County "tip-off" tournament.

Assumption defeated North Park 50-35 in the championship game of the six-team tournament. Mike King (18) led the way while Tanner Baldin added 12 and Josh Turner had 8. Matt Krason put in 8 points for the Trojans.

The third-place game went to Brantford CI, 51-38 over Paris DHS, with Dalton Mark pouring in 23 points.

Pauline Johnson took the consolation final, 50-37 over Simcoe Composite. Swapnil Shaoma had 23 for PJCVS.

Brantford Expositor: Senior Lions Show They Are Ready

Article By: Darryl G. Smart

Now that's the way to welcome back the senior high school boys basketball season.

Although it was a warmup before the real season gets underway, you wouldn't have known it if you were at North Park Collegiate Institute Saturday night for the Ed O'Leary Memorial Tip-Off Tournament final.

With 1.1 second left, the score tied, and the Assumption Lions with possession, Nolan Drong received a pass thanks to a perfectly designed play to get the final shot off.

As Drong's shot went through the hoop, the buzzer sounded and the Lions captured their first tip-off tourney title, with a 55-52 win over the St. John's College Green Eagles.

"The coaches said that I would make that shot," said Drong, who finished the game with eight points.

"The coaches drew it up and we were just able to execute it."

"The play went right to plan," Assumption's Andre Toic said. "It was exactly what we wanted."

Toic, who led the way with a game-high 22 points, said that he and his teammates did not know what to expect, heading into the tuneup tourney. But they built confidence as the weekend went on.

"It feels great to have a weekend like this," Toic said.

"We came in wanting to just see where we stood with the other teams. Winning it is great and it's something we really hope we can build on."

Last season, the Lions beat the Paris District High School Panthers in the Brant County quarter-final. But, with a depleted lineup, things came to a disappointing end for the Lions in the semifinal.

But this season is shaping up to be different.

"Everyone believes in each other, a lot more than last year," Toic said.

"I think there's a new belief, which is much different. The guys know we can play well and winning this has given us a lot of confidence. It shows we can beat the top teams in our league. Now we just have to keep improving."

Drong said one of the keys to the strong showing on the weekend was the way the Lions came together as a unit.

"It's a great group of guys," Drong said.

"We've been able to jell pretty quick so far. We're all in it to win it. Everyone has come in with the right attitude."

As for the Green Eagles, the weekend showed that there is still work to do, said James Terejko.

"We have to be a little more together as a team on the bench and on the floor, and bring it all together throughout the games," he said.

"But we definitely saw the progress as the weekend played out. We started to work more as a team."

Which is a reason the Green Eagles were able to erase a nine-point fourth quarter lead to set up the dramatic finish Saturday night.

"The last four minutes we really came back hard and did a great job of getting back in it," Terejko said.

"It's a pretty good way to start the year. It would've been nice to be able to win, but it's a great learning experience. Now we know what to work on."

Saturday's results

Final
ACS 55, SJC 52
ACS: Andre Toic 22, Brandon Vincent 12, Nolan Drong 8, Austin Tlustos 6, Zoltan Bazna 3.
SJC: James Terejko 14, Cam Post 12, Tim Dawson 14, Adam Peters 6, Dylan Smith 4, Steve Szasz 2.

Third-place game
NPC 56, Holy Trinity 35.
NPC: Nick Minutillo 17, Matt Minutillo 10, Brodie McIvor 8, Eric Hamilton 6, Vishal Braar 4, Dan Howell 3, AK Rai 3, Tyarr Powell-Hodges 3, Chrisna Som 2.
HT: Hayden Black 12, Josh Johnson 12, Dylan McKenzie 4, Lorenzo DeSantis 3, Matt Dyjach 2, Mark Gubbels 2.

Consolation final
BCI 67, PJC 44
BCI: Mackenzie Mark 23, Ben Candy 20, Liam Biclawski 8, Kelby Sakauk 8, Ryan Jamula 4, Brandon Moxley 3, Conner Loder 2, Noel Bomberry 2.
PJC: Austin Roloson 7, Dylan Williams 6, Mike Knevel 6, Dakotta Robinson 5, Dakota Brush 6, Scott Sobczk 6, josh Hammond 2, Alex Mouselimis 1.

SCS 61, Paris 31
SCS: Tommy Tran 9, Kevin Allemang 7, Austin Gulley 7, Jordan Peever 7, Tyler Poss 2, Ben Adams 3, Steve Durish 9, Tristan Catherwood 6, Mike Caley 4, Brandon Reaney 7.
Paris: Isaac Sollazo 14, Harji Gill 11, Kris Kuik 6.

SJC 63, HT 46
SJC: Connor Kuzmich 11, Adam Peters 2, David Smith 2, James Terejko 8, Dylan Smith 5, Cam Post 16, Tim Dawson 13, Steve Szasz 4.
HT: Jordan Hill 2, Hayden Black 7, Josh Johnson 22, Tevaun Gardiner 12, Mark Gubbels 2, Lorenzo DeSantis 1.

ACS 38, NPC 34
ACS: Andre Toic 14, Nolan Drong 6, Ron Taylor 2, Austin Tlustos 11, Brandon Vincent 5.
NPC: Chrisna Som 2, Matt Minutillo 15, Nick Minutillo 8, Andrew Silla 2, Jon Dulmage 4, Vishal Brar 3.

BCI 54, Paris 37
BCI: Adam Bakken 2, Liam MacNeil 6, Mackenzie Mark 6, Tristan Almas 5, Noel Bomberry 1, Kelby Sakaluk 11, Ben Candy 21, Liam Bielawski 2
Paris: Travis Taylor 12, Kris Kuik 2, Harji Gill 8, Kevin Humiel 6, Kurtis Rideout 2, Issac Sollazo 6.

PJC 63, SCS 50
PJC: Dylan Williams 9, Austin Roloson 5, Mike Knevel 3, Dakotta Robinson 7, Dakota Brush 25, Josh Hammond 3, Ali Francis 9, Scott Sobczyk 4
SCS: Kevin Allemang 11, Tommy Tran 5, Brandon Reaney 4, Jordan Peever 15, Tyler Poss 3, Tristan Catherwood 2, Steve Durish 2, Lucas Martin 2, Wes Monrman 3.

Retrieved From: http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/2012/11/25/senior-lions-show-they-are-ready

AA OFSAA: Celtics Return With Bronze

The 3rd-seeded Guelph Bishop Macdonell Celtics picked up a medal for CWOSSA over the weekend, capturing the bronze medal at the 18-team "AA" event in Sault Ste. Marie.

The Celtics dominated Stratford St. Michael 46-28 in the bronze medal game; Rebecca Morris poured home 24 points while Andrea Priamo added 9.

Bishop Mac lost 57-42 in the semifinals to the eventual champions, second-seeded St. Francis of St. Catherines. Morris (14) and Katie Labron (9) were the top scorers in that game.

Congrats, Celtics, on a terrific season!

Friday, November 23, 2012

CWOSSA: Senior Boys Top 10 - Preseason Ranking

Two WCSSAA schools have been selected as the "top 2" teams in my CWOSSA preseason Senior Boys' ranking.

The Waterloo Collegiate Vikings (who return their entire starting 5) and the Cameron Heights Golden Gaels (who return almost all of their scoring offense from a year ago) are #1 and #2 respectively in the season's inaugural ranking.

Those teams are followed by Guelph Bishop Mac, who return several key players (Jesse Kendall, Owen Brombal) and welcome back transfer Mitchell Wood.

Another school that has benefited heavily from transfers, Kitchener Huron Heights, is ranked #4. Juwan Miller (ex-Forest Heights), Junior Bradford (ex-CHCI junior) and Tyrelle Rafferty (ex-ECI junior) are three players that could impact the program in short order.

Rounding out the top 5 is Centre Dufferin DSS of Shelburne, who were the #1-ranked team at AAA last season, are now an "AA" school and have virtually everyone back from last year's roster, including the Zanette twins.

Other schools in the top 10 are Galt Collegiate (#6), Grand River Collegiate (#7), Guelph JF Ross (#8), Kitchener St. Mary's (#9) and Guelph Centennial (#10).

The full list is as follows:

1. Waterloo Collegiate / Waterloo

2. Cameron Heights Collegiate / Kitchener

3. Bishop Macdonell HS / Guelph (AA)

4. Huron Heights Secondary / Kitchener

5. Centre Dufferin District Secondary / Shelburne (AA)

6. Galt Collegiate / Cambridge

7. Grand River Collegiate / Kitchener

8. John F. Ross Collegiate / Guelph

9. St. Mary's Catholic HS / Kitchener

10. Centennial Collegiate / Guelph

Honourable Mentions
North Park Collegiate / Brantford
Sir John A. Macdonald Secondary / Waterloo
Bluevale Collegiate / Waterloo
St. James Catholic HS / Guelph
St. John's Catholic HS / Brantford
Centre Wellington District HS / Fergus

WCSSAA: Taylor Named MVP of WCSSAA League

WCI guard Lindsay Taylor was named as the MVP of the WCSSAA Senior Girls' Basketball league, a press release from league officials announced on Thursday.

Taylor, a 5th year guard, will be joined on the first team by her teammate, Alex Klein, as well as guard Maddy Horst (WODSS), forward Nicole Barnard (SSS), Liz McLellan (CHCI), and Brooklyn Wright (JHSS).

Second-team nods go to Natalie Bishop (BCI), Kailey Deboer (GRCI), Blair McNaughton (FHCI), Julia Pavlik (WCI) and Ashley White (PHS).

Honourable Mentions:
Kaylee Anagnostopoulos (WCI)
Ashlyn Beckman (GCI)
Jenna Gangl (HHHS)
Alisha Glendinning (WODSS)
Sarah Hamm (BCI)
Kayleigh Hutt-Taylor (SSS)
Hunter Johns (CHCI)
Jocelyn Kivell (GPSS)
Malena McCrossan-Moses (SJAM)
Olivia Nelles (KCI)
Mel Samuel (ECI)
Krista Wiens (EDSS)
Candice Wright (JHSS)

Brantford Expositor: Green Eagles Fall into OFSAA Consolation Round

Article By: Darryl G. Smart

It was a tough day for the St. John's College Green Eagles at the Ontario Federation of Schools Athletic Association AAAA girls basketball championships.

A pair of losses on Thursday at the provincial championships at John Paul II Catholic and Beal secondary schools in London has the Brant County champions in the consolation round.

In the first game against Brampton's Notre Dame, the Green Eagles got behind early and couldn’t recover in a 51-38 defeat.

“We had a very slow start in the morning game and dug ourselves a deep hole,” Green Eagles coach Matt Lynch said.

“We were down 20-3 at the end of the first quarter and were down 23 at half. We started to fight back and we cut the lead down to seven early in the fourth quarter but we had a few bad breaks that stifled the comeback.”

Later in the afternoon, the Green Eagles lost 52-49 in overtime to the No. 4 seeded St. Anne Secondary School in Windsor.

“The evening game was a battle from beginning to end,” Lynch said.

“We got down 8-0 early but we battled back and were only down one at half.

“We went back and forth in the second half with numerous lead changes and had some opportunities at the end of regulation that we couldn't take advantage of,” he said.

“In OT we hit some big shots and it pretty much came down to whoever had the ball last was going to win and their player knocked down a big shot at the buzzer for the win.”

On Friday, the Green Eagles enter into the consolation round at 8:30 a.m., at Beal.

“Tomorrow we look to be competitive in the consolation bracket,” Lynch said. “Hopefully we take the intensity we played with in the last game and carry it over into tomorrow's games.”

At the AAA championships in Belle River, the North Park Collegiate Trojans also struggled in the first quarter en route to an early loss.

Jessica Grant scored 12 points and Abbey Johnston added 10 in a 57-35 loss to Ottawa's École Secondaire Louis-Riel.

After trailing 21-7 after one quarter, the Trojans fought back and outscored its opponents 12-10 in the second quarter and 13-6 in the fourth, but a 20-3 Louis-Riel run in the third quarter was the big difference maker.

On Friday, the Trojans play Dr. J.M. Denison Secondary School from Newmarket at 1 p.m.

Retrieved From: http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/2012/11/22/green-eagles-fall-into-ofsaa-consolation-round

OFSAA Updates: CWOSSA Teams

Woodland (A)

First Round: (1) Jean Vanier 57, (11) Woodland 10

Second Round: (6) Rideau 38, (11) Woodland 31
WCHS: Kirstin Hofstee 11

Bishop Macdonell (AA)

First Round: (3) Bishop Mac 61, (18) McGuigan 14
BMAC: Katie Labron 16, Jessica Morris 13

North Park (AAA)

First Round: (4) Louis Riel 57, (10) North Park 35
NPC: Jessica Grant 12, Abbey Johnston 10

St. John's (AAAA)

First Round: (13) Brampton Notre Dame 51, (7) SJC 38
SJC: Monica Polgar 10

Second Round: (4) St. Anne's 52, (7) St. John's 49 - IN OT
SJC: Kendra Van Leeuwen 21

Waterloo CI (AAAA)

First Round: (5) WCI 45, (15) St. Peter's 23
WCI: Kaylee Anagnostopoulos 15, Julia Pavlik 11.

Second Round: (5) WCI 54, (12) Eastview 41
WCI: Lindsay Taylor 23, Kaylee Anagnostopoulos 13

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Brantford "Tip Off": Senior Boys Tournament

The annual "Brantford Tip Off" senior boys' tournament is set for this weekend in Brantford.

Friday's schedule is as follows (all games at NPC in Brantford):

4:00pm - Pauline Johnson vs. North Park

5:30pm - Simcoe CS vs. Assumption

7:00pm - Paris DSS vs. St. John's

8:30pm - Holy Trinity (Simcoe) vs. Brantford CI

JUNIOR: Resurrection Early Bird Boys' Tournament This Weekend

A few local (K-W) teams will be competing over at Resurrection CSS in Kitchener this weekend at their annual "Early Bird Round Robin Tournament".

Participating teams include Waterloo schools Bluevale, St. David and WCI, as well as Kitchener Huron Heights and the host Resurrection Phoenix.

The schedule is as follows:

Friday
2:30pm - Resurrection vs. St. David
4:00pm - Bluevale vs. WCI
5:30pm - St. David vs. Huron Heights
7:00pm - Resurrection vs. Bluevale

Saturday
8:30am - WCI vs. Huron Heights
10:00am - St. David vs. Bluevale
11:30am - Resurrection vs. Huron Heights
1:00pm - St. David vs. WCI
2:30pm - Huron Heights vs. Bluevale
4:00pm - Resurrection vs. WCI

St. David, WCI and Resurrection were all "ranked" in my preseason junior CWOSSA rankings.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

JUNIOR BOYS: CWOSSA Preseason Ranking

A caveat to these rankings is that they are "sight unseen" and strictly based upon what I've heard about teams 'on paper'.

A few tournaments taking place over the coming weekends should help shape these rankings into a relatively accurate state of CWOSSA Basketball. Also, a couple potential players being "moved up" to senior could certainly have a big impact, as well.

Here's a look:

CWOSSA Preseason "Top 10" Ranking - Junior Boys
1. Cameron Heights Collegiate / Kitchener

2. St. John's College / Brantford

3. John F. Ross Collegiate / Guelph

4. St. David Catholic Secondary / Waterloo

5. Grand River Collegiate / Kitchener

6. Sir John A. MacDonald Secondary / Waterloo

7. Waterloo Collegiate / Waterloo

8. Resurrection Catholic Secondary / Kitchener

9. North Park Collegiate / Brantford

10. St. James Catholic HS / Guelph

Honourable Mentions
St. Mary's Catholic HS / Kitchener
St. Benedict Catholic / Cambridge
Assumption College / Brantford
Eastwood Collegiate / Kitchener
Bishop Macdonell Catholic HS / Guelph
Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic HS / Guelph

Non-CWOSSA News: Sportsnet Mag Details Pretty River's Unlikely OFSAA Win

Sure, it's not really CWOSSA news, but this article was too good not to give you a heads up.

It's a story about Collingwood's Pretty River Academy, last year's "A" OFSAA champions, who are referred to in the article as "Canada's Own Hoosiers" who are "defending one of the most unlikely championships ever".

PRA has a student population of 25 high-school students. Yes, 25. That's down from last year's 42 population when the school took home the OFSAA championship.

An excerpt:

With only 21 high-school aged boys to choose from, every male was recruited, regardless of height, age, or, for that matter, whether they'd ever picked up a basketball. Fifteen-year-old Walker Scarrow, last year's "motivator and water boy" says they didn't have much choice. "You're breathing? You're on the team. You have no hand-eye coordination? That's fine."

Twelve kids showed up at the first practice, including a kid with asthma so bad he couldn't play in games, a competitive skier who missed most of the season, and an exchange student named Tassilo Schmidt who moved back to Germany halfway through the year.

Unfortunately, there's no online version to link to, but I definitely recommend picking this edition up --- if only for this article.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

SENIOR GIRLS: CWOSSA Seeds - OFSAA

"A"
Woodland Christian (Breslau) - #11

"AA"
Bishop Macdonell (Guelph) - #3

"AAA"
North Park (Brantford) - #10

"AAAA"
Waterloo Collegiate - #5
St. John's (Brantford) - #7

CWOSSA: Senior Exhibition Results

A couple of exhibition results from Kitchener-Waterloo senior teams yesterday; interestingly enough, the teams that won the last three CWOSSA "AAAA" titles (St. Mary's, Bluevale and Cameron Heights) were in action.

Over at Resurrection, Cameron Heights jumped out to a 29-10 halftime lead and cruised home to a 53-39 win against the Resurrection Phoenix. The Gaels knocked home five three-pointers in the opening quarter to set the tone early.

Vlad Matovic (10), Nem Simic (8), Afraz Khan (6), Gord Erkic (6) and Vedran Dmitrovic (5) were the top scorers for the Gaels in a game that saw everyone get some court time.

Tyler Bartley (8), Patric McGlynn (7), Onique Findlay (6), Tony Moi (6) and Thomas Hunter (5) paced the Phoenix.

Also on Monday, Kitchener St. Mary's took out Waterloo Bluevale by a 56-40 margin. Three grade 11's --- Jamari Stephenson (11), Nathan Riley (9) and Jermaine Lyle (9) led the Eagles while Garrett Large (10) and Lukas Seibert (8) were the top Bluevale scorers.

Those four teams will "switch opponents" on Wednesday. Ironically, both winners (Cameron Heights and St. Mary's) will play while Resurrection takes on Bluevale.

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