Crusaders edge Eagles in decisive final basketball game of KASSAA regular season

Posted Feb 16, 2012 By Hollie Pratt-Campbell

---

EMC Sports - Local basketball fans packed the gym at Ernestown Secondary School Feb. 9 for a long-awaited showdown between KASSAA's two undefeated senior boys' basketball teams: the Ernestown Eagles and the Holy Cross Crusaders. It was the final game of the regular season for both teams, and all players showed up hungry for the number one ranking.

The Eagles came out strong in the first half, ending the first quarter with a score of 14-11 and widening the gap even further with for a score of 37-23 by half time. A few key turnovers fuelled by some amped up defence allowed the Crusaders to catch up to their opponents during the second half of the game, and they managed to tie it up just over three minutes to go in the fourth quarter. A nail-biter finish resulted in a 54-58 win for Holy Cross.

"It was exciting (to watch)," said Crusaders coach Alfie DeMelo.

"We really struggled in the first half. We didn't shoot the ball well, but we didn't defend either."

It was the strength of his team's defence, DeMelo said, that allowed the momentum to swing in their favour.

"We kind of fed off our defence, and were able to go full court pressure...in turn we were able to hit a lot of shots and narrow the gap."

"It was definitely pretty intense," said Holy Cross guard Connor Shkimba. "We knew Ernestown was a really strong team with strong players, so we knew we had to come out and shut them down."

Shkimba remarked that it feels great to have a flawless record.

"I've never played on an undefeated team, so it feels really good to end the season this way."

All the same, he stressed the importance of not letting the success go to their heads.

"We're going to have to play hard," said Shkimba. "Obviously from this game we still have a lot to do before we can get to where we want to be. We've still got to put in the extra work and just stay consistent."

Eagle Cam Gibson said that while the loss was disappointing, he is confident the team can still go all the way.

"(Our goal is) to get to the finals - we want KASSAA, we want EOSSAA and we want OFSAA, and we've been practicing hard for it every day."

Gibson noted that "we were excited (going into the game against Holy Cross). Obviously we wanted the number one spot. We felt like we had the better team and we practiced hard, but even after all that I think we just lost our composure.

Coach Chris Morrow said that they knew the game was going to be tough going in.

"They're a very good team...and we knew they were not giving up any point. We got up and we knew they were going to keep coming and competing. We weren't able to rebound in the second half like we did in the first and they just kept coming after us."

Morrow explained that the Eagles are fortunate enough to have five players in their fifth year of high school, whose experience has been key to their successful season. However, he noted that the playoffs are still going to be a battle, as there are strong teams even in the bottom half of the bracket.

"We need to focus on doing the same things that made us successful to this point. It would be nice to get another crack at (Holy Cross) but that's going to take a couple more wins from us and a couple more wins from them."




blog comments powered by Disqus