Bishop Mac, Lourdes advance to D10 all-AA senior final
GUELPH – This year’s District 10 high school senior boys’ basketball final won’t just be for league bragging rights, it’ll also be for the right to advance to the CWOSSA AA championship tournament.
The D10 final will be an all-AA match as the Bishop Macdonell Celtics and the Lourdes Crusaders are to battle for D10 honours Saturday at the Guelph Gryphons Athletics Centre as both ousted AAA opponents in Thursday’s semifinals.
Bishop Mac, first in the final regular-season standings with an 11-3 mark and a win in the tiebreaker over the Ross Royals who had finished with an identical record, disposed of the fourth-place Centennial Spartans with a 57-38 victory in the semifinals. The Spartans had finished the regular season with a 9-4 record.
Lourdes, third in the regular season at 10-4, defeated Ross 70-55 at Ross Thursday.
The Celtics and Crusaders split their regular-season matches, each winning on their home court. Bishop Mac won 68-41 Dec. 5 and Lourdes claimed a 61-56 victory Jan. 11.
Saturday’s winner advances to the CWOSSA AA tournament Feb. 23 and 24 at Centre Dufferin in Shelburne where they’re to get a first-round match with the second representative from District 1/7, the Bluewater Athletic Association that includes the schools in CWOSSA’s northern reaches. Semifinals are to go Feb. 24 with the winners meeting in the final at 7 p.m.
CWOSSA champ advances to the OFSAA provincial AA high school championship tournament at Ottawa March 4 to 6.
Ross will be the D10 representative in the CWOSSA AAA championship tournament that is to be held at Centennial Feb. 23 and 24. Ross is to play the D5 (Athletic Association of Brant, Haldimand and Norfolk Counties) representative and the D6/11 () second representative in pool play Feb. 23 with the top two in each pool advancing to the semifinals Feb. 24. Final is set for 7 p.m. that day.
Saturday’s D10 final at the University of Guelph is to start at 2 p.m.
Lourdes 70 Ross 55
After a slow start that saw the first three and a half minutes go scoreless, the Crusaders slipped ahead 13-12 by the end of the opening quarter. Lourdes took advantage of Ross turnovers in the second quarter to grab a 36-29 lead at halftime.
The gap was still seven points, 49-42 for Lourdes, at the end of the third quarter and midway through the fourth quarter (58-51 for the Crusaders) before they stretched the final margin out to 15 points.
The Crusaders hit nine three-pointers in the game and added 12 points on free throws, seven coming in the fourth quarter when Ross was forced to foul in an attempt to regain possession of the ball.
The Royals sank four three-pointers and five free throws.
Dom Favaro led Lourdes with 21 points while Simon Porcellato and Joe Basciano each had 14 and Luke Ellis had 11.
Jonathan Wang netted 15 for Ross while Ronan Robinson collected 11 and Drew Dunlop had five.
Bishop Macdonell 57 Centennial 38
The Celtics dialed up their defence in the third quarter as they held the Spartans to three points in that quarter to extend a four-point lead at the intermission into a 20-point lead heading into the final quarter.
Bishop Mac led at the end of each quarter as the Celtics were up 10-9 at the end of the first quarter, 28-24 at halftime and 47-27 at the end of the third quarter.
The Celtics drained six three-pointers and four free throws in the match while the Spartans hit one three-pointer and 21 free throws.
Ben Dorling led Bishop Mac with 22 points. He hit three three-pointers, all in the third quarter. Josh Davis collected 15 points with 13 coming in the opening half and Joey Guanzon chipped in with five points.
Tristan Vandenheuval had 15 points for Centennial while Nima Ashkar had 11, Cam Viveiros added six and Rohan Bhaskar contributed five.
Junior Boys’ Basketball
There’s no CWOSSA berth at stake in Saturday’s junior final as the St. James Lions and Centre Wellington Falcons are both assured of moving on.
But the D10 title is the first championship up for grabs for the teams in the game that is to start at 12 noon at the GGAC.
The CWOSSA berths were decided in Thursday’s semifinals as St. James squeezed by Bishop Mac 61-56 in an all-AA match while Centre Wellington downed Ross 66-53 in Fergus in an all-AAA contest.
St. James had finished first at the end of the regular season with a 13-1 record and were followed by Centre Wellington in second at 11-3 and Ross in third at 10-4. Bishop Mac had finished fifth at 5-9 and had upset fourth-place Orangeville Bears (7-7) in the quarter-finals.
The Lions swept their two regular-season games as they won 82-68 at Centre Wellington Dec. 19 and 59-43 at St. James Feb. 8 in final game of the campaign for both teams.
The CWOSSA AA tournament is set for Feb. 23 at Westside in Orangeville and Feb. 24 at Centre Dufferin in Shelburne.
The CWOSSA AAA tournament is to be held at Feb. 23 at College Heights and Feb. 24 at Centennial.
St. James 61 Bishop Macdonell 56
Nick Melehes led the Lions with 20 points while Hayden Khan added 14.
Bishop Mac received 22 points from Kai Fan and 21 from Jayden Thompson.
Centre Wellington 66 Ross 53
Jason Watkins hit for 20 points for Centre Wellington while Lucas Albano netted 19.
Nash Dunlop led all scorers with 23 points for Ross.
- Guelph Sports Journal