Adam Scott Lions head into championships Saturday
Green and White basketball showdown Saturday at noon
The Adam Scott Lions learned a lesson earlier this week and now have a chance to win their eighth annual Green and White senior boys’ high school basketball tournament.
The Lions avenged a 48-45 loss to crosstown rival St. Peter’s Saints in league play on Tuesday with a 63-48 win in tournament semifinals Friday at Adam Scott Collegiate.
The Lions will face Markham’s Middlefield, the tournament’s defending champions, at noon on Saturday at Adam Scott. Both teams are 2-0. The Lions also beat Bowmanville 67-50 on the strength of Zach Deline’s 31 points. Middlefield beat the Thomas A. Stewart Griffins 70-18 in their opening game and Belleville’s Nicholson 56-54 in semifinals.
The senior Lions have dominated the Kawartha region for several seasons but the Saints caught their attention in the opening game of the league schedule.
“It was nice to get revenge tonight,” said Deline. “It’s almost good early in the season to lose like that. It’s a wake-up call. We responded by beating TASSS yesterday and then we won twice today.”
Lions head coach Steve Deline, Zach’s father, said they learned some lessons on Tuesday.
“It was a major wake-up call,” said Steve Deline.
“We didn’t appreciate the calibre of team that St. Peter’s can be and they certainly realized it by the end result.
“It’s an awareness that you have to work hard and consistently for 32 minutes.”
He thought it was an improved effort this time around.
“I saw a little bit more discipline in our execution which hurt us on Tuesday in our offensive sets. We showed a little more energy and effort on our defensive side of the ball. We gave up some easy baskets on Tuesday and weren’t working hard enough and supporting each other in a one-v-one situation.”
John Parsons led the Lions against St. Peter’s with 14 points while Josh Deller-Hadzi had 11 and Daniel Schultz netted eight. Andre Stevens topped the Saints with 11 points while Andy Fredericks had eight and Damien Cheung five.
St. Peter’s coach Brent Claydon felt fatigue was a factor this time around.
“We’ve had a lot of basketball,” said Claydon.
“This is our eighth game in the last eight days. We were in a tournament in Durham last weekend where we played four so my guys were showing a little bit of fatigue today. We’re trying to share our minutes around because we have a couple of players away on holidays. We knew what to expect this weekend. We wanted to work through some mechanics and whatever happens, happens.”
While the Saints feel they’re in a position to push the Lions for a Kawartha title this year they won’t get the opportunity this time.
For the first time the league is dividing its playoffs into separate AAA, AA and A high school tournaments.
The AAA Saints won’t see the AA Lions come playoffs.
“I’d like to think, realistically, we are co-favourites,” said Claydon.
“As well as they’ve been doing in AA our St. Peter’s teams have been performing well in AAA. We’ve won AAA COSSA the last two years at junior and we have a sound group of kids who have been moving through to the senior ranks.
“We’re deep. We can go 12 deep in any game depending on the match-ups.”
A result of the second game for the Griffins, the only other local school in the tournament, was unavailable at press time. Collingwood withdrew from the tournament on Friday morning due to inclement road conditions in their region.
Adam Scott fielded a second team of junior players and some seniors to replace them but their results didn’t count in the standings.