The Record: St. James Ends Galt's OFSAA Aspirations

Photo Via @BrysonRecord

Article By:  Mark Bryson

GUELPH — The Galt Ghosts were just one win away from a berth in the all-Ontario high school basketball championship. 

And then the St. James Lions crushed the dream. 

The Guelph squad utilized its superior balance and depth to capture its second consecutive Central Western Ontario triple-A title on Monday night with a 60-47 win over Galt. 

The Lions advance to next week's OFSAA championship in Windsor. 

St. James' victory overshadowed an outstanding performance by Ghosts forward TJ Lall, who scored 20 of his game-high 28 points in the second half to keep his team in contention until the dying minutes. 

Lall scored 18 consecutive points at one point, including a four-point play and a three-pointer from at least 10 feet beyond the arc. 

"TJ's a helluva player and he wants it. He didn't want to lose today and he put it all out there," said Ghosts head coach Jeff Dunning. 

"They don't feel it now, but they're going to remember this. They're going to be disappointed for a bit, but this is something they'll look back on and have a lot of fond memories. They'll feel very proud of what they accomplished." 

Joey Hasson led the Lions with 18 points. Brandon Evans and Mitch Marquis had 10 apiece and Keegan Feeney had nine. 

By contrast, Lazar Stevanovic was Galt's second leading scorer with six points. 

"We got some guys that can score better than others, but I like to think we're nine or 10 deep," said Lions head coach Bob Sharpe. 

"I think we have a little more depth than Galt does and that helped in the long run." 

St. James never trailed and led 24-21 at the half. 

Lall scored the final six points of the half to keep the Ghosts close. He also scored Galt's first 12 points of the second half. 

Galt reached the final with a 62-48 win over the KCI Raiders while St. James scored a 51-29 win over Brantford North Park. 

Brantford's St John's College Eagles won the junior championship, recording a hard-fought 49-39 win over the Bluevale Knights. 

Ryan Kidd and Tommy Gemmell scored nine points each for the Eagles, who led 21-15 at halftime.

Greg Smith had 14 for Bluevale and Will Scheffler added 12. 

Bluevale captured a CWOSSA junior medal for the first time since 1989, when current head coach Doros Theodosiou was a player on the squad. 

Bluevale reached the final with a 38-36 win over the St. David Celtics. 

Retrieved From:  http://www.therecord.com/sports-story/5456306-st-james-ends-galt-s-ofsaa-aspirations/

Guelph Mercury: St. James Lions Get Defensive in Retaining CWOSSA Title

Photo via @StJamesAthletic

Article By:  Rob Massey

GUELPH — They say defence wins championships, and the St. James Lions believe that to be true. 

"We didn't look really comfortable on offence," St. James coach Bob Sharpe said. 

"We looked a little awkward at times and a little unsure. Maybe we were a little excited about things, but we've tried to stress all year that the D's got to stay constant and that the D was going to win the game for us. I thought again that we played really, really good defence." 

Alex MacKeigan and Keegan Feeney combined for five points for the Lions in their 60-47 CWOSSA AAA senior boys' basketball championship win over the Galt Ghosts of Cambridge Monday night at St. James, but they might have shared the most important assignment for the Lions. They had the task of guarding tall T.J. Lall of the Ghosts, likely the best individual player in the tournament. 

"Alex is pretty tenacious, and if you give him a job he'll take it on," Sharpe said. "He's worked really hard the two years he's played for us, and his improvement as a player overall has been excellent. He's not a very physical guy, but he'll give you everything he's got. With a guy like Lall with his size, his length, there's only so much you can do with him. I thought he did a great job and I thought Quinn Feeney did a good job. Between the two of them, we did the best we could against him." 

"I just stayed on him, made sure he didn't get the ball and doesn't do anything with it," MacKeigan said. "Basically when I was playing defence on him, I felt confident. It got me through the game and got us the win. Defence wins games, right? It was a great team effort." 

"That was our main focus," Feeney said of the defensive play. "T.J.'s a great scorer so we focused on that. Everyone else on their team can hit their shots, so everyone had to play their parts." 

While Lall managed to hit for a game-high 27 points, he was denied the ability to take control of the game by the pesky Lions. 

"T.J. Lall hit some incredible long-distance shots, but all said and done, he's going to get his points, anyway," Sharpe said. "I thought we did a really good job of neutralizing their other players." 

"He's quick and he's really long," Feeney said. "He gets the first step and then he's at the rim so, really, you've got to get in front of him and do your best." 

Galt hung around during the game, proving to be a worthy adversary. The Lions were up 17-7 at the end of the first quarter and 24-21 at halftime before the Ghosts tied it at 35 midway through the third quarter. After that, the hosts went on a 10-2 run to finish the quarter, then ramped up their intensity on defence to hold Galt to 10 points in the final quarter. 

Joey Hasson, who also spent some time guarding Lall, led the Lions with 18 points while Mitch Marquis and Brandon Evans had 10 apiece and Keegan Feeney netted nine. 

While Lall led Galt, next on the scoring list for the Ghosts was Lazar Stevanovic with six points. 

The Lions advance to the OFSAA provincial championship tournament March 9 to 11 at Windsor. It'll be their second consecutive appearance in the tournament. 

"Win D10 first, then CWOSSA," MacKeigan said. "Now we're going to OFSAA, baby!" 

In the semifinals, the Lions downed the North Park Trojans of Brantford 51-29, while Galt defeated the Kitchener-Waterloo Raiders 62-48. 

St. James's defence was on display in the second half of its semifinal win as the Lions limited the Trojans to six points after the intermission. St. James led 20-9 at the end of the first quarter, 28-23 at halftime and 44-25 after the third quarter. 

Hasson connected for 15 points for the Lions while Brennan O'Connor had 11 and Evans added six.

Matt Minutillo had 17 points for North Park. 

Junior

The St. John's Green Eagles of Brantford claimed the CWOSSA title with a 49-39 win over the Bluevale Knights of Waterloo. 

St. John's held quarter leads of 5-2, 21-15 and 29-19. 

Ryan Kidd and Tommy Gemmell had nine points apiece for St. John's, while Greg Smith had 15 and Will Sheffler 11 for Bluevale. 

The Guelph CVI Green Gaels were ousted from the tournament after they suffered a 62-49 loss to St. John's in the semifinals. 

The Gaels trailed 16-9 at the end of the first quarter and 34-18 at halftime before closing the gap to 40-37 by the end of the third quarter. 

Lincoln Rosebush hit for 19 points for GCVI while Rip Singh had 13 and Kyle Kush added eight. 

Ben Kwasnik had 19 points for St. John's while Kidd and Chris Brewster collected 12 apiece. 

Bluevale edged the St. David Celtics of Waterloo 38-36 in the other semifinal. 

Retrieved From:  http://www.guelphmercury.com/sports-story/5456314-st-james-lions-get-defensive-in-retaining-cwossa-title/

AAA CWOSSA in Guelph

One final set of champions will be determined in Guelph, where Semifinals & Finals of the "AAA" tournament go today.

AAA Junior
St. John's 62, Guelph CVI 49
Bluevale vs. St. David

Final:  St. John's vs. BCI/SDCSS

AAA Senior
North Park vs. St. James
KCI vs. Galt

Final:  STJ/NPC vs. KCI/GCI

"AAAA" Senior: 'Landers Jump Out Early, Control Final En Route to Title

The SJAM Highlanders jumped out early, then rode their big lead home as they took the 2015 CWOSSA "AAAA" Senior basketball title by a 74-58 score on Saturday evening at Assumption College in Brantford.

The 'Landers received contributions up and down their lineup in the early going, with a couple of the usual suspects (Nedim Hodzic, Simon Petrov) doing most of the early damage.  Devon Gallivan, though, also got involved early with a big-three pointer that was part of an 18-3 SJAM run to start the game.

Things didn't get much better for the Eagles early in the second, as SJAM extended the lead to 26-9, before some tough Tesloth Simon three-pointers helped St. Mary's cut the deficit to 13 (40-27) at the half.

SJAM, though, was dominant on the interior in the third quarter, with both Hodzic and Brett Parrott hitting the scoresheet several times in extending the SJAM lead to 20+ (51-22).  By that point in the third, Hodzic already had his usual "double-double" (17pts, 10reb at that point).

To give St. Mary's credit, their 5th year veterans certainly didn't quit despite being down nearly 20 after three (56-38).  In fact, a 7-0 "blitz" over the course of a minute brought things to within 9 points (56-47) and still almost 6 minutes to play.

SJAM, though, responded with a 7-0 run of their own to put St. Mary's up against the wall, which included a huge Gallivan three-pointer in transition.

The Eagles weren't able to get back within single digits down the stretch, as SJAM held on for a big win.

Hodzic finished with 25 points and 14 rebounds, while Simon Petrov had 18 points and 6 assists.  Brett Parrott and Justin Hardy (16 and 10) were also in double-figures for SJAM, while Devon Gallivan had 6.

Tesloth Simon and Nathan Riley had 15 each for the Eagles, while Minas Abara (11), Adham Eleeda (9), and Jamari Stephenson (7) rounded out the St. Mary's scoring.

The weekend performance by both teams brings up some interesting questions in advance of the "AAAA" OFSAA seeding release.  St. Mary's clearly has a very solid resume, including their tournament win at the Silver Fox.  SJAM, meanwhile, doesn't have the "name brand" wins that St. Mary's does, but a big win over St. Mary's and some huge wins down the stretch should certainly help where they end up.  

It will be interesting, that's for sure.  Good luck to both teams down in Windsor!

Boxscore
SJAM   20-20-16-18 = 74
SMHS  09-18-11-20 = 58

SMHS
N. Riley          7-19 FG, 1-1 FT, 10 Reb, 1 Ast - 15 Pts.
Te. Simon       4-11 FG, 4-4 FT, 4 Reb, 0 Ast - 15 Pts.
T. Thompson  0-7 FG, 0-2 FT, 1 Reb, 0 Ast - 0 Pts.
J. Lyle            0-4 FG, 0-0 FT, 1 Reb, 0 Ast - 0 Pts.
J. Stephenson 2-9 FG, 1-2 FT, 2 Reb 0 Ast - 7 Pts.
-----
M. Abara       4-7 FG, 1-3 FT, 5 Reb, 3 Ast - 11 Pts.
A. Eleeda       4-8 FG, 0-0 FT, 4 Reb, 3 Ast - 9 Pts.
Th. Simon       0-0 FG, 0-0 FT, 1 Reb, 0 Ast - 0 Pts.
B. Niel           0-0 FG, 0-0 FT, 1 Reb, 0 Ast - 0 Pts.
H. Abara        0-1 FG, 0-0 FT, 1 Reb, 1 Ast - 0 Pts.
D. Nguyen      0-0 FG, 0-0 FT, 0 Reb, 0 Ast - 0 Pts.

Field Goals:  21-65 (.323).  Free-Throws:  7-12 (.583).  Three-Point Goals:  8-24, .333:  Te. Simon 3-7, M. Abara 2-4, J. Stephenson 2-5, A. Eleeda 1-3, J. Lyle 0-1, N. Riley 0-4.

SJAM
S. Petrov        7-12 FG, 4-4 FT, 4 Reb, 6 Ast - 18 Pts.
D. Gallivan      2-5 FG, 0-0 FT, 3 Reb, 1 Ast - 6 Pts.
J. Hardy          2-7 FG, 4-4 FT, 4 Reb, 4 Ast - 10 Pts.
B. Parrott       7-12 FG, 1-1 FT, 4 Reb, 1 Ast - 16 Pts.
N. Hodzic     11-18 FG, 3-5 FT, 15 Reb, 2 Ast - 25 Pts.
-----
JW Scheele     0-0 FG, 0-0 FT, 0 Reb, 1 Ast - 0 Pts.
B. Vedut         0-0 FG, 0-0 FT, 0 Reb, 0 Ast - 0 Pts.
M. Maslenjak 0-0 FG, 0-0 FT, 0 Reb, 0 Ast - 0 Pts.
P. Kapoor      0-0 FG, 0-0 FT, 0 Reb, 0 Ast - 0 Pts.
A. Bansal        0-0 FG, 0-0 FT, 0 Reb, 0 Ast - 0 Pts.
T. Perera        0-0 FG, 0-0 FT, 0 Reb, 0 Ast - 0 Pts.

Field Goals:  29-54 (.537).  Free-Throws:  12-14 (.857).  Three-Point Goals:  5-14, .357:  D. Gallivan 2-4, J. Hardy 2-4, B. Parrott 1-4, N. Hodzic 0-1, S. Petrov 0-1.

"AAAA" Junior: Zapp's Big Performance Helps 'Landers to Title

Brian Zapp poured in 23 points as the top-ranked SJAM Highlanders got all they could handle from the St. Mary's Eagles but controlled the overtime session en route to a 60-53 win in the "AAAA" junior final on Saturday.

The game was a back-and-forth affair, with the Eagles taking a 5-point lead late, before SJAM was able to tie it up.

With the game tied (50-all) and 13 seconds left, SJAM called timeout to set up a final play.  However, off the inbounds, Tyreak Farquharson had a big steal and drove the lane where he was wrapped up by an SJAM defender.

As those in the crowd questioned whether an intentional foul might be called, Farquharson was whistled for a technical foul.  He made 1-of-2 free throws before Maxsim Koprivica hit 1-of-2 on the other end.  A desperation Zapp three-pointer just rimmed out, sending the game to overtime.

The difference in OT was clutch free-throw shooting by SJAM as well as ball security --- the Eagles had several turnovers down the stretch and weren't able to get their offense on track.  In the end, they managed just two points in the extra session.

Farquharson, Joshua Maligaya, Raiden Thorne and Jason Jaros were solid in defeat for the Eagles, while Nino Spasik had a double-double alongside Zapp's 23 points and Maxsim Koprvica had timely makes as well for the 'Landers.

SJAM went undefeated during the 2014-15 season in CWOSSA play.

Brantford Expositor: Outmanned BCI Juniors Put Up A Good Fight

Article By:  Brian Smiley

Brantford Collegiate Institute may have lost its opening CWOSSA 'AAAA' junior boys basketball game on Friday morning at Assumption College but the team's players earned the praise of their coach.

"I think that's the best team in the tournament," BCI coach Marc Cohoon said following his team's 76-47 loss to Waterloo's Sir John A. Macdonald Highlanders.

"We knew they were going to be good and we were actually pleased after the first quarter with how we competed."

After bowing out of Brant County in the semifinals, the Colts had to play a qualifier game to get into the Central Western Ontario Secondary Schools Association tournament. BCI won that game, defeating Assumption 54-46.

Unfortunately in the qualifier, the Colts lost one of their key players - Keaton Thornton - with a broken arm. BCI also entered the SJAM game without starters Liam Rose (concussion) and Judah Stewart as well as bench player Logan Evans.

Despite being short staffed, the Colts led 14-13 after one quarter.

"The first quarter was awesome," Cohoon said. "We hoped to slow the game down a little bit because we only had seven or eight guys. As soon as the press came and we played a little fast, we obviously couldn't defend a man with tired bodies so we played our zone and they made shots.

"Trading threes for twos doesn't go that well usually."

In the second quarter, BCI led 19-16 before SJAM went on an 11-0 run that put it out front 37-23 at the half.

The Colts were done in by turnovers and sub-par defensive rebounding but most importantly, the three pointers.

SJAM made 11 shots from beyond the arc in the game, including six from Nino Spasik and four from Maksim Koprivica. Spasik, the game's leading scorer with 35 points, scored 15 of his points in the second quarter.

The Highlanders put the game away with a 10-3 run to open the third quarter.

BCI was led offensively by Adrian Fletcher's 16 points. Adam Bakker and Ben McAlpine added 10 points each while Ben Perrault got six.

Even though his team played short-handed, Cohoon could not have asked for much more from those who took to the court.

"We just said to them in change room, we had more assists today than we've had all year," the coach said. "Team play was awesome today. When we did break the press, it looked great.

"It was a great effort. We can't fault their effort. That's a good team."

The Colts were eliminated from further play with a 59-47 loss to St. Mary's during a game Friday afternoon at ACS.

Despite only playing two CWOSSA games, Cohoon said it will serve his team well down the road to have played at the tournament.

"Experience for a bunch of Grade 9s who are on the floor goes a long way for next year," said Cohoon, whose team consisted of five Grade 10s and six Gr. 9s.

Retrieved From:  http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/2015/02/27/outmanned-bci-juniors-put-up-a-good-fight

Brantford Expositor: Senior Lions' Season Comes To An End At CWOSSA

Article By:  Brian Smiley

Two weeks without competition didn't help the Assumption College Lions at home on Friday in their opening CWOSSA 'AAAA' senior boys basketball game.

Assumption started its Central Western Ontario Secondary Schools Association tournament with a 55-40 loss to Waterloo's Sir John A. Macdonald Highlanders.

Playing in their first game since defeating the North Park Collegiate Trojans on Feb. 13 to claim their second straight Brant County championship, the Lions couldn't shake off the cobwebs.

"They came out and played hard but that was our first game in over two weeks," said ACS coach Mike Petrella. "We were a bit rusty. We weren't knocking down shots.

"That's the game of basketball. Sometimes you're hitting, sometimes you're missing."

Assumption struggled with its shooting the entire game and it didn't take long to recognize that was going to be an issue as SJAM built an early 15-8 lead in the first quarter.

Despite being behind, the Lions did play hard and on a Mike King three-pointer with five seconds remaining in the first quarter, ACS was down by one, 15-14.

Following an Andre Toic field goal 15 seconds into the second quarter, Assumption held its first lead of the game -- but it was short-lived. The Highlanders followed that basket up with a 6-0 run before Mike Heron hit a three to stop the streak.

However, going down low to use their height advantage over the Lions certainly worked for the Highlanders.
"You've got to give Sir John A. Macdonald credit though because they play hard," Petrella said.

"We've got to do a better job of keeping people off the glass."

In the third quarter, SJAM stretched its lead to 13 - to 39-26 - before heading to the fourth ahead 46-32.
After that the Lions tried desperately - on one possession they launched three, three-pointers and none would drop - to come back, but at 2:36 the coaches decided to sub out their starting five.

"The reason we did it was because we wanted to give the five guys rest for (Friday night), that's why we did it," Petrella said.

"It's not often you get to go to CWOSSA so those (bench) guys they got an opportunity to say now that they've played a little bit in a CWOSSA game."

Petrella said in the team's next game, the plan would be simple.

"We've just got to work harder," said the coach. "If we win our next game, we move on. We have to remain positive.

"We've got to play better defensively. We've got to keep guys off the glass and we just have to make some of our shots. The game of basketball is about putting the ball in the net. If you're not putting it in the net, you're not going to win."

Unfortunately for the Lions, their season came to an end later Friday night when St. Mary's eliminated them with a 68-61 decision.

The tournament continues on Saturday at ACS, with the junior final slated for 5 p.m. and the senior championship to follow at 7 p.m.

Retrieved From:  http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/2015/02/27/senior-lions-season-comes-to-an-end-at-cwossa

"AAAA" Senior & Junior: Results

AAAA Senior
 
Round 1
SJAM 55, Assumption 40
Cameron Hts. 95, St. Mary's 90 (2OT)

Elimination Game
St. Mary's 68, Assumption 61

OFSAA Qualifier (Semifinal #1)
SJAM 60, Cameron Hts. 47

OFSAA Qualifier (Semifinal #2)
St. Mary's 75, Cameron Hts. 50

Championship Final
SJAM 74, St. Mary's 58

AAAA Junior

Round 1
SJAM 76, Brantford CI 47
Eastwood 69, St. Mary's 57

Elimination Game
St. Mary's 59, Brantford CI 47


Semifinal #1
SJAM 63, Eastwood 48


Semifinal #2
St. Mary's 82, Eastwood 75

Championship Final
SJAM 61, St. Mary's 53 (OT)

"AA" Senior: Celtics Take 8th Title in Last 10 Years

Another year, another Bishop Macdonell CWOSSA "AA" senior title.

The Celtics took the school's 8th title in the past 10 years on Friday, posting a 63-36 victory over Pauline Johnson (Brantford) in the championship final.

As has become the norm, the "AA" CWOSSA powerhouse had little difficulty in their championship run.  The Celts posted an average margin of victory of 27 points per contest, and none of their 4 opponents were able to crack the 40 point barrier.

The homecourt OSCVI Falcons did give them a bit of a run in the semifinal, closing to within single-digits and under 4:00 to go, before Bishop Mac closed on a 9-2 run to end the contest.

Here's how things went down in Owen Sound:

First Round
OSCVI 41, Norwell 35
Southwood 34, Simcoe 25
Bishop Mac 67, Saugeen 39
Pauline Johnson 58, Centre Dufferin 52

Quarterfinals
Southwood 54, Norwell 37
Pauline Johnson 68, Saugeen 60
OSCVI 45, Simcoe 27
Bishop Mac 71, Centre Dufferin 33

Semifinals
Pauline Johnson 49, Southwood 38
Bishop Mac 49, OSCVI 33

Championship Final
Bishop Macdonell 63, Pauline Johnson 36

"AA" Junior: Glenview Park Claims School's First CWOSSA Title

The Glenview Park Panthers captured their first-ever CWOSSA Junior Boys' basketball title on Friday in Owen Sound, defeating the Bishop Macdonell Celtics by a 58-47 score in the championship final.

Glenview had won a senior CWOSSA title (AAA, 2002), but had never tasted victory in the junior ranks, despite some very solid teams in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

The Panthers were the class of the "AA" field this year, winning all four of their games by double-digit margins.

In the first-round, they defeated Simcoe CS 64-28, and then easily handled Wellington Heights (Mount Forest) 71-21 in the quarterfinals.

The semifinal game against Centre Dufferin went down as a 43-21 score.

The victory by GPSS ends D10's seven-year reign on the "AA" CWOSSA junior title.  Lourdes had won the past four titles, while Bishop Mac took three straight titles before that.

Here are Thursday & Friday's combined results:

First Round
Saugeen 58, Wellington Hts 29
Glenview Park 64, Simcoe 28
Bishop Mac 45, Sacred Heart 28
Centre Dufferin 48, Paris 37

Quarterfinals
Glenview Park 71, Wellington Hts 21
Simcoe 53, Saugeen 36
Centre Dufferin 66, Sacred Heart 45
Bishop Mac 29, Paris 24

Semifinals
Bishop Mac 30, Simcoe 20
Glenview Park 43, Centre Dufferin 21

Championship Final
Glenview Park 58, Bishop Mac 47

Guelph Mercury: Lions, Gaels Advance to CWOSSA AAA Hoops Semifinals

Article By:  Rob Massey 

GUELPH – Both Guelph District 10 boys' basketball champions have advanced to the semifinals at the CWOSSA high school AAA boys' basketball championship tournament. 

Both the St. James Lions in senior and Guelph CVI Green Gaels in junior won twice Saturday to gain the top seeding in their three-team pools for Monday's semifinals at St. James. 

"The goal was to advance to Monday and preferably to advance with two wins," St. James coach Bob Sharpe said. "We accomplished that." 

"Coming into the day, we wanted to get two wins," St. James guard Mitch Marquis said. "We didn't want to get just one, we wanted to show that we could beat every team here, hopefully, if we play well. We've got to start with the defence and the offence will come after. Hopefully we can continue to do that on Monday." 

"We were a little surprised, actually," GCVI coach Rich Tremain said. "We came in just hoping to get one win out of the two and make it to Monday, so getting the two wins is a bonus. I don't think that means we have a weaker opponent coming on Monday because I think everybody in the other pool is pretty strong." 

The Lions dropped the Preston Panthers 72-26 and the Kitchener-Waterloo CI Raiders 57-31. 

"They were two quite different games," Sharpe said. "The first game we actually didn't play all that well in the first half, but the second half we played much better. We didn't shoot the ball very well, but we just had better shot opportunities. The second game against KCI, that's the third time we've played them this year and all three games have been basically the same. They've got some shooters, but I thought we did a really good job on defence taking away their shooters and dealing with the screen-and-roll stuff. We're pretty happy at this point and looking forward to Monday's semifinal." 

Joey Hasson struck for 25 points (18 in the first quarter) in the win over Preston while Alex Durigon had 15 and Marquis netted nine. Jonny Ashworth had 11 for Preston. 

Marquis collected 11 in the win over KCI while Durigon, Alex MacKeigan and Erwin Tapnio had eight each. David Ben-Lemotey had 12 for KCI. 

"It starts with defence," Marquis said of the success for the Lions this season. "Mr. Sharpe always talks about defence and that's where our game has to come from. The offence will come after, once we get the defence going." 

The Lions rely on team play and don't have a go-to player. All chip in and play their roles. 

"If someone has a hot hand, we try to look for him," Marquis said. "But everyone can hot in any game and our scoring is from everyone on the team." 

And it's from everywhere in the offensive zone. Saturday, they hit a total of seven three-point shots and also sank 26 foul shots. 

"We do like the three-ball a lot, but we're trying to focus more on getting the ball inside a little bit more," Marquis said. "We're trying to work our way and not always rely on the three-point shot." 

The Gaels defeated the Galt Ghosts 65-48 and Waterloo's Bluevale Knights 66-57. 

"The boys are confident going into Monday," Tremain said. "They played very well today. This morning we were a little stale and sloppy, but they cleaned that up." 

The Gaels trailed Galt by a point after the third quarter, but outscored the Ghosts 28-10 in the fourth quarter.

Kyle Kush and Lincoln Rosebush had 20 points apiece for the Gaels in the win over the Ghosts while Rip Singh added 16. Muhammad Iralan had 17 for Galt while Abbas Khan added 14. 

Singh had 19 points against Bluevale while Kush had 17, Rosebush 14 and Jerrol Smiles 10. Michael Allen led Bluevale with 21 and Greg Smith contributed 11. 

GCVI continued with the style of play that gained the Gaels their D10 success. They basically keep the ball moving and keep the pace high throughout the game and it usually pays off in the third or fourth quarters. 

"That's been our strategy, to really push the ball down the floor and ideally wear teams down," Tremain said. "We've been telling the boys that games will be close for the first half and if we do wear them down, in the third and fourth quarter we're able to pull away and it's worked." 

However, that strategy becomes tougher the further along in the season the Gaels get and Monday will be the end of their season as there are no OFSAA provincial high school championships at the junior level. 

"The teams on the other side of this pool are very, very strong," Tremain said. "We're going to go in and compete and whatever happens, it's been an amazing season for these boys." 

KCI and Bluevale gained Pool A's other semifinal berths. KCI defeated Preston 62-41 in senior and Bluevale dropped Galt 51-33 in junior. 

Moving on from Pool B play at Lourdes were the Galt Ghosts and Brantford North Park Trojans in senior and St. David Celtics of Waterloo and St. John's Green Eagles of Brantford in junior. 

The Galt seniors defeated St. David 63-48 and North Park 61-37 while North Park downed St. David 61-50. 

In junior, St. David edged KCI 44-41 and defeated St. John's 58-49 while St. John's nipped KCI 55-52. 

Monday's semifinals pit the first-place team in one pool against the second-place team in the other pool. All of Monday's games are to be played at St. James. 

The junior semifinals feature GCVI against St. John's at 9 a.m. and Bluevale against St. David at 10:30 a.m. 

The senior semifinals pit St. James against North Park at noon and KCI against Galt at 1:30 p.m. 

The Lions have not played North Park this season. 

"I know they ended up second in the Brantford league," Sharpe said. "We've had some history with North Park. It'll be a tough ball game, but we have home-court advantage and hopefully we'll have some people here to cheer us on. We're looking forward to a very tough semifinal." 

The Lions lost to North Park at the CWOSSA AAA tournament four years ago and also two years ago at the unofficial CWOSSA championship when there was the labour dispute in the public school board. 

"I don't think much about payback because every game is different and every season is different," Sharpe said. 

The junior final is slated to go at 5:30 p.m. and the senior final is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. 

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