Bishop Mac turns on defence to capture senior title
GUELPH – The Bishop Macdonell Celtics prevailed 53-50 in a back-and-forth battle with the Lourdes Crusaders in the District 10 high school senior boys’ basketball championship match Saturday at the Guelph Gryphons Athletics Centre.
“This feels amazing,” said Hayden Schut, a Grade 12+ student who was his team’s MVP of the game. “I’ve been on the team every year since I got into high school and finally did it my last year, which is great.”
“It’s hard to put in a few words, especially after last year losing in the semis, coming back and having a couple of returners,” Bishop Mac coach David Glibota said. “It means the world to all these guys and I think the team of 11 guys showed up today and were fired up to be D10 champs.”
The Celtics had used a stingy defence, limiting opponents to a league-low 624 points during the 14-game regular season, to finish in a tie for first with the defending champion Ross Royals. The tiebreaker went Bishop Mac’s way thanks to two wins over the Royals.
At 6-foot-5, Schut is a big part of Bishop Mac’s defence as he parks himself under the bucket and scoops up plenty of rebounds. He also plays in that position under the opposition net to pick up rebounds at that end, too, and then putting the ball back at the net, usually while leaning off to his right.
Surprisingly, Schut hasn’t attracted any attention from university teams, but he’s not ruling out playing in the OUA league.
“Maybe I’ll try out. We’ll see,” he said.
Getting their hands on rebounds was a big thing for the Celtics throughout the season.
“We really knew coming in that Lourdes has phenomenal shooters from around the arc so we really tried to push them off,” Glibota said. “Our game is honestly about down low and getting those offensive rebounds for the extra second-chance points. Today we got a lot of rebounds. Jackson Long got 20 rebounds which is incredible and he really kept us in that game at the end.”
The game was the lowest-scoring D10 senior final since 2016 when Bishop Mac and Ross combined for 98 points with the Celtics winning 60-38.
It was also the closest D10 senior final since 2015 when the St. James Lions slipped by Bishop Mac 59-56, the previous time two AA squads met in the championship match.
With two AA teams meeting in Saturday’s final it meant one would see its season come to an end.
“It was definitely a little nerve-racking thinking it could be the last game of the season,” Schut said.
“It added a lot,” Glibota said. “Our semifinal game, the Lourdes game finished before us and we found out at halftime that they advanced. Even in that semifinal, it pushed us a bit more knowing that there is no tomorrow unless you win. It definitely added a lot of pressure for the boys and they responded really well to it.”
Bishop Mac led 20-15 at the end of the first quarter, but Lourdes rallied in the second quarter to go up by as much as five points. However, the Crusaders were ahead 29-27 at halftime, but the Celtics regained the lead late in the third quarter. Bishop Mac carried a 36-35 lead into the fourth quarter.
Despite dealing with key players in foul trouble in the final quarter, the Crusaders kept the score close, but couldn’t net a last-minute three-pointer to pull even.
While the Crusaders lost two players to five-foul disqualification in the final quarter, the Celtics had a player ejected for getting two technical fouls on the same play five minutes into the second half.
Team MVPs for the game were Hayden Schut for the Celtics and Domenic Favaro for the Crusaders.
Schut led Bishop Mac with an 18-point outing while Josh Davis and Jackson Long each had 12. Joey Guanzon added seven while Tyson Hamilton and Brandon Nguyen scored two apiece.
Four players accounted for the scoring for Lourdes as Favaro had 20 points, Simon Porcellato 17, Joe Basciano 11 and Machut Apach two.
Bishop Mac advances to the CWOSSA AA tournament at Centre Dufferin in Shelburne Friday and Saturday.
“I’m hoping to bring it home and win, but we’ll see how it goes,” Schut said of the CWOSSA tournament.
The teams the Celtics will meet in the tournament are a bit of an unknown for Bishop Mac.
“To be honest with you, we never look ahead,” Glibota said. “We always go day by day so I don’t have a clue yet, but we’ll be prepping this week for it so we’re excited.”
But Bishop Mac has the D10 title that was their first real goal of the season, and possibly the goal given the highest priority.
“These guys, they see each other at school and a lot of them play rep together outside of here and the competition is just fierce. I definitely think that D10 is the one they want to win,” Glibota said. “We knew coming into the year that Lourdes was the team we thought was going to take it and we were going to have to compete with them. I’m really happy we were able to have a good battle with them and end up as victors.”
Ross is D10’s representative in the CWOSSA AAA tournament at Centennial the same days.
- Guelph Sports Journal