Third time’s the charm for Renegades
WATERLOO — The Grand River Renegades came in as underdogs and exited as playoff semifinalists.
Dilgash Ferhad scored a gamehigh 18 points, including three crucial three-point bombs, to lead the sixth-ranked Renegades to a 56-50 road win over the thirdranked Bluevale Knights in a Waterloo County (WCSSAA) senior boys basketball playoff game. Grand River, 6-6 in regular-season play, scored the opening basket and never trailed against Bluevale (10-2) in their third meeting of the season.
“We were the underdogs going into this game and today was all about hustle,” said Ferhad. “They (officials) let us play and the game was a lot faster, that’s how we like to play.”
Grand River advances to a semifinal matchup against the second-ranked Glenview Park Panthers on Thursday in Cambridge.
The Panthers advanced with an 80-65 win over the Sir John A. Macdonald Highlanders as Emanuel Etong led the way with 35 points.
Thursday’s second semifinal will pit the top-ranked Eastwood Rebels against the fifth-ranked Huron Heights Huskies. Eastwood received 26 points from Abdei Abdella Hamad in a 55-39 win over the Southwood Sabres and Kuel Thomas had 27 in a 65-54 win over the No. 4 Cameron Heights Golden Gaels.
Bluevale had defeated Grand River in both previous encounters, including a 65-59 decision just last week, but the Renegades jumped out to a 17-7 first-quarter lead and never surrendered it. Ferhad hit a three-point buzzer beater to give his team a 30-25 halftime lead and repeated the feat at the end of the third to make it 42-36 for Grand River.
Anthony Perez-Carey chipped in with 12 points for the Renegades and Emmanuel Odouk had 11.
The question now is whether Grand River can post another upset win over Glenview Park.
“Of course. We took them to overtime last time (a 62-57 loss in November) and if we hustle like we did today and show the same heart, we can get them,” said Ferhad.
Marshall Barrick and Michael Allen scored 13 and 12 points respectively for Bluevale, which received a high-energy performance from Gony Dak. The Knights’ best spurt came during the second quarter when they went on 9-0 run to almost erase a 23-9 deficit.
Bluevale’s disappointing defeat was compounded by the fact the winning team received an automatic berth into next week’s Central Western Ontario (CWOSSA) triple-A championship. Eastwood and Huron Heights also move on, Glenview Park advances to the CWOSSA double-A tournament.
Knights head coach Steven Arthur praised his team for a strong season and admitted the law of averages may have worked against them.
“Coaches know what the other team is going to do and it comes down to execution. They executed today and we didn’t execute as well as we could have,” said Arthur.
“These guys are wonderful gentlemen and it’s sad to end a
season like this. I wish we had practice tomorrow.”
The winners of Thursday’s semifinal games will play for the WCSSAA championship on Tuesday night.
In District 8 play, the two-time defending champion St. Benedict Saints recorded a 38-21 win over the Resurrection Phoenix to advance to Thursday night’s final against the St. Mary’s Eagles. Trent Johnson led the Saints with 11 points and Mahier Mohamed had 13 for the Phoenix.
St. Mary’s will take on Resurrection in the D8 junior final, which starts at 6 p.m.
The senior final is at 8 p.m. Both games are at St. Mary’s High School.
Volleyball
The top-ranked Forest Heights Trojans will face the No. 2 Preston Panthers in Thursday night’s WCSSAA senior girls volleyball final at Waterloo Collegiate.
Both teams recorded semifinal victories at home Tuesday; Forest Heights blanking the Sir John A. Macdonald Highlanders 3-0 (25-19, 25-18, 25-10) and Preston handling the Huron Heights Huskies 3-0 (25-17, 25-15, 25-15).
The Cameron Heights Golden Gaels will face the Waterloo Vikings in the junior final.