St. James Lions secure junior boys’ hoops honours
GUELPH – The St. James Lions claimed their first District 10 high school junior boys’ basketball title in 10 years Saturday when they slipped by the Centre Wellington Falcons 69-62 in the final at the Guelph Gryphons Athletics Centre.
“This is a great feeling. We’re not at season’s end yet, but this is a great final culmination of all the hard work that everyone’s put in,” St. James coach Shawn Cummings said. “It was a really tough battle. They brought their best game it seems and they were making a lot of their shots and it made it very hard for us today.”
The Lions, who had finished the regular season atop the league with a single loss, came back from an early deficit to capture the win.
“I was pretty concerned (about falling behind early),” coach Cummings said. “I know they have some very good shooters and I know they’re also good at taking the ball to the hoop so I didn’t want to over emphasize either one of them. I think we played great defence and we did that the whole year. It’s a great feeling overall just to see them execute as they did today and overcome a bit of adversity from that first half.”
St. James had trailed 14-11 at the end of the first quarter, but went ahead for the first time at 19-17 a minute and a half into the second quarter. They held that two-point advantage at 34-32 at halftime before stretching the lead to 52-42 at the end of the third quarter.
The final quarter started with a flurry of baskets, mainly three-pointers, by both teams as the two teams combined to score 28 points in the first three and a half minutes of the quarter, the Lions leading 67-55 before the scoring slowed down for the remainder of the game.
The title win was the sixth for St. James, all since 1995 when they hoisted the championship plaque for the first time. They also won in 1997, 2002 and 2014.
The Falcons were looking for their second junior title win after having won it for the first time in 2016.
Hayden Khan of St. James and M.J. Toppin of Centre Wellington were their team’s MVPs of the game.
Khan had 21 points for the Lions while Brysyn Peters and Josiah CaDougan added 11 apiece. Peyton Cummings had 10 while Nick Melehes and Tim Coloma each had seven and Cannon Schmidt had two.
Toppin and Lucas Albano collected 21 points apiece for Centre Wellington while Conor Gormley chipped in with seven, Jason Watkins had six, Jadon Cranston contributed four, Ryan Watkins netted two and Greg Lindsay added one.
The game was for league bragging rights as both teams advance to CWOSSA championship tournaments, which is as far as junior squads can go.
The Lions are to compete in the CWOSSA AA tournament at Westside in Orangeville Friday and Centre Dufferin in Shelburne Saturday.
“We’ve played a couple of the CWOSSA teams at our tournament and I really don’t know too much else about what’s out there, but I’m pretty confident in this team against anyone,” coach Cummings said. “It’ll be a great team effort and I’m looking forward to another challenge there.”
The Falcons move on to play in the CWOSSA AAA tournament in Guelph Friday at College Heights and Saturday at Centennial.
- Guelph Sports Journal