Unbeaten streak continues
Adam Scott Lions win third straight senior high school boys basketball title; late basket gives Saints junior title over Canes
The Kawartha high school senior boys basketball final did not have much drama; the junior final was full of it.
The Adam Scott Lions continued their dominance of the senior loop winning their third straight Kawartha title extending their three-year unbeaten streak against regional competition to 55 games. They jumped ahead 9-2, built the lead to 26-10 at half-time and defeated the Thomas A. Stewart Griffins 53-28 at the Peterborough Sport and Wellness Centre on Friday afternoon.
The junior final was a nailbiter with Andre Stevens sinking a basket with 4.8 seconds left to give the St. Peter Saints their first lead of the game in a 48-46 win over the Holy Cross Hurricanes.
At senior, Eric Palmer and Pablo Sancho led the LIons with 10 points each while Ryan Simmons had 11 for TASSS.
Palmer says their unbeaten streak is a source of pride.
“The fact we come together as a team and work day in and day out to never lose a game really says a lot about the character of our team,” Palmer said.
It also says something about their talent.
“We have 15 really good players, no weaknesses,” Palmer said. “If someone is having an off game there are always people coming off the bench. We’re a complete team.”
“It shows a lot of commitment on the players’ part right from when they enter Grade 9 at Adam Scott,” said Lions coach Steve Deline. “Especially the kids who are graduating, they really want to go out with something really meaningful. This is a good first step to that happening.”
Deline thought his team could have played better but got an early lead and were able to keep the Griffins from threatening.
“We did enough of the little things well enough to keep the lead where it was. Moving forward we’re certainly going to have to work on our execution,” he said.
In the junior final, the Saints overcame a seven point deficit in the final two minutes with Stevens sinking a key three to close within three as he recorded seven of the Saints’ final eight points among his 23 overall. Andy Fredericks had nine points for the Saints.
“With the guys we have we can come back from a big margin,” Stevens said. “This means a lot and now we’ll go on to COSSA and play our hardest there to try to bring another one home.”
Saints coach Brent Claydon felt his team got off to a sluggish start.
“We went to a man-to-man defence, which we haven’t used most of the year, in the second half just to up the intensity level and wake the guys up. It forced them to move and got them back in the game. It forced some turnovers and led to some opportunities driving to the basket.”
The Hurricanes came close to capping a Cinderella Story. They finished fourth in the regular season but knocked off the unbeaten Adam Scott Lions by 16 points in Thursday’s AA final.
“We committed to development and gave everyone even minutes,” said Holy Cross coach Bond Bjorgan.
“It paid off being patient and working on development. At junior I think that’s important. We didn’t come out with the wins early on but we stuck with the plan for the season. As we got to the playoffs we started giving some of our more experienced players a few more minutes. That definitely helped us.”
He felt the Saints had more experience in pressure situations.
“It was important we got to a championship game because playing under that pressure is something our players needed to experience,” Bjorgan said. “You could see where (St. Peter’s) experience in dealing with the pressure led to some better decisions.”
Ben Giroux and Ryan Brodie led the Hurricanes with 11 points while Ethan Payne had eight.
The COSSA AAA championship will be hosted by TASSS on Friday. The COSSA AA championship is in Belleville on Friday.