In the opening seeding round, held in Belleville: …………………………………………………… The 3rd-seeded Barrie Innisdale Invaders defeated the 9th-seeded Belleville Nicholson Catholic Crusaders 80-69 as Andrew Stevenson scored 39. Andrew O’Brien led Nicholson with 15. …………………………………………………… The top-seeded Windsor John L. Forster Spartans defeated the 11th-seeded Ernestown Eagles 69-68 on a driving layup by Randy Simonato. “The fouls were 12-4 against us in the first half and that wasn’t help us,” Spartans co-coach John Pleli told the Windsor Star. “Like always, we pulled it out in the end.” The Spartans trailed after the first, second and third quarters, but managed to put their game together in the fourth quarter and outscore Ernestown 21-16 to get the win. “We never trailed by more than six,” Pleli said. “We’re just happy we survived because the second seeded team lost.” Jermaine Jackson led Forster with 20, including 10 in the final quarter. Randy Simonato added 12, Shawn Gallant 8, Talbot 8, Robinson 7, Crumb 2 nd Nuckles 2, while Eddy, William and Lopez were scoreless. The Eagles led by eight in the second quarter, by six at the half and by four at the three-quarter mark as Gavin Stainton nailed a trey at the buzzer. The lead traded hands five times down the stretch before Simonato hit the winner with five seconds to play. Rob Smart had sunk a pair of free throws with 18.5 seconds to clock to give Ernestown a 68-67 lead. Forster co-coach John Frederick told the Kingston Whig-Standard that he set up the isolation play for Simonato. “It’s a 1-4 set. Our guys are pretty quick so we think that we can penetrate against anybody, pretty well. If it doesn’t work, we have other things coming off of it but what we try to do is get the point guard to create something on his own, force somebody to step up to him and it works a lot of the time. With the athleticism of the guys that we have, we can afford to do something like that and get away with it.” Smart found Stainton with a 40-foot pass on the final play. He pulled up for a five-foot jumper but lost his balance and the shot rimmed out. Eagles coach Tom Turnbull said “I thought we had control of the game but for a couple of things we did at the end. For us to win, offensively we had to work the ball and we had a couple of possessions at the end where we didn’t work the ball. We let it go too quickly.” Eagle Phil Leonard said “it really hurts to lose by a point but on the other hand, the game’s not that important because you can’t get knocked out. This one gave us an idea of what there is and I’m sure now we can play with anyone here. Rob Smart paced Ernestown with 35, including a stretch in which he went 11-12 from the floor. Phil Leonard added 12, Stainton 7, McKegney 3 and Dewar 2, while Wilson was scoreless. …………………………………………………… The 6th-seeded Peterborough Raiders defeated the 16th-seeded Sutton West Sutton District Sabres 83-62 as Brent Goulding scored 20. Steve Clanfield led the Sabres with 18. …………………………………………………… The 4th-seeded Delhi District Raiders edged the 10th-seeded Rockcliffe Ashbury Colts 41-37. Johnson Ku paced the Colts with 16. …………………………………………………… The 12th-seeded Etobicoke Marian Academy Mustangs stunned the 2nd-seeded Port Colborne Lakeshore Catholic Gators 43-42. …………………………………………………… The 5th-seeded Thunder Bay St. Ignatius Falcons clubbed the 15th-seeded Timmins Ecole Secondaire Theriault Flammes 66-53. …………………………………………………… The 7th-seeded St. Thomas Arthur Voaden Vikings clubbed the 13th-seeded North Bay St. Joseph’s Scollard Hall Bears 51-32 after leading 40-21 at the half. Casey Renaud led the Bears with 10. Todd Morris added 8, Dave Webb 7, Ryan Barnhardt 6, Todd Parisotto 5 and Lucas Jones 5. …………………………………………………… The 8th-seeded Timmins HVS Blues torched the 14th-seeded Port Perry Rebels 63-38.
In the second round: …………………………………………………… The Barrie Innisdale Invaders defeated the 14th-seeded Port Perry Rebels 61-52. …………………………………………………… The top-seeded Windsor John L. Forster Spartans thrashed 16th-seeded Sutton West Sutton District Sabres 67-47. “It was 43-17 at the half,” Spartans co-coach John Pleli told the Windsor Star. “We barely played our starters in the second half.” Jermaine Jackson scored 14, Steve Talbot 12 and Ujamaa Nuckles 10. …………………………………………………… The 6th-seeded Peterborough Raiders defeated the 11th-seeded Ernestown Eagles 62-37. Eagle Rob Wilson snared a defensive board and put it in his own hoop, a perfect metaphor for Ernestown night. The Eagles fell behind 23-0, shot 0-10 from the arc and lost star Rob Smart early in the fourth quarter to fouls. Starter Gavin Stainton did not play because of ankle injury suffering in the opening round. “One of the guys on the bench says, “coach, if that’d been me, I’d have missed the shot (Wilson’s),” Eagles coach Tom Turnbull told the Kingston Whig-Standard. “And I thought, nah, the way the game went for us, there’s no way we’d miss that shot.” Turnbull said his troops “were totally flat and I had no idea why.” Peterborough shot 10-13 from the floor and dominated the paint as they strode to the 23-0 lead. Turnbull said Peterborough’s experience was evidence. “These guys just kept right on rolling and when you come out flat against a team as good as this, with this much at stake, there’s just no catching up. … They’re here for the second time,” Turnbull said. “Last year they lost two and went out and this year I think they just said to themselves we’re not going home early. That’s one of the truisms of experience at major championships. That’s why teams often do well who’ve been there many, many times, because they understand what it takes to win the big games. We’ve come out flat a number of times this year. Both the quarter-final and semifinal games, we came out flat and we were behind against QE and Sydenham, but QE and Sydenham are not as good a team [as Peterborough]. These guys just kept right on rolling and when you come out flat against a team as good as this, when it’s that focused, with this much at stake, there’s just no catching up.” The Eagles rallied to within 13 at the half but the Raiders opened the second half with an 8-2 run and the Eagles hopes soon dissipated when point guard Robbie Smart fouled out. “I think Robbie tried to do a little too much at that juncture,” said Turnbull. “He was playing with three fouls and at that point you can’t afford to drive. They were setting picks all over the place, trying to draw him into another foul and his fifth foul, that’s what it was. He avoided three guys who came down and set picks and finally the last guy set a pick, he didn’t see it and he hit him.” The Eagles played out starter Gavin Stainton, who’d injured his ankle in the tournament opener. Turnbull said “to put it in perspective, it’s been a great season, no doubt. A 30-win season is fantastic. The sad part is knowing we could win here and didn’t. We thought at the beginning we could make it to the [county] final and we did that. We didn’t really look beyond, but when we saw the teams down there, we felt we could win EOSSA and we did that. Getting here was kind of gravy, but then once we got here and saw `hey we can play with these guys,’ then take the No. 1 seed to the wall and let it slip away, I think they were really disappointed. Maybe that deflated us a little. Maybe that was a factor in today’s game: All the emotion hung out there [Wednesday night] and all of a sudden, we didn’t have anything to come back with. I’m not sure.” Geoff Hebert and John Munnings led Peterborough with 14 points apiece. Lawrence added 10, Goulding 10, Gerow 6, Crowley 4 and Goloher 2, while Shevuluk, McAlpine and Young were scoreless. Rob Smart led Ernestown with 13. Jeff Brierley added 12. Phil Leonard 10 and Jason McKegney 2, while Stainton, Wilkinson, Wilson and Sager were scoreless. The Eagles (coached by Tom Turnbull) also included Virk. …………………………………………………… The 10th-seeded Rockcliffe Ashbury Colts (then the Cavaliers) edged the 7th-seeded St. Thomas Arthur Voaden Vikings 61-57 as Dean Petridis scored 25 and Oggie Kapetanovic 18. …………………………………………………… The 4th-seeded Delhi District Raiders bombed the 13th-seeded North Bay St. Joseph’s-Scollard Hall Bears 60-42. Todd Parisotto led the Bears with 11. Todd Morris added 10 and Lucas Jones 8. The Bears (coached by Jim Davidson, assisted Jim Mallory) also included Casey Renaud, Marc Pepin, Ricky Earle, Dave Webb, Ryan Barnhardt, Fran Tignanelli, David Merleau, Mike Amyotte, Cory Wishak and Jason Noble. …………………………………………………… The 5th-seeded Thunder Bay St. Ignatius Falcons stunned the 2nd-seeded Port Colborne Lakeshore Catholic Gators 72-65. The Gators (coached by Steve Atkin, assisted by J.C. Maltais) included Robert Balgac, Kevin Nieuwland, Henk Nieuwland, Lance Teasdale, Patrick Maloney, Greg Collingridge, Shawn Martin, Shawn Schertzing, Chris Kucman, Luc Clara, Cory D’Amico and Kris Davis. …………………………………………………… The 12th-seeded Etobicoke Marian Academy Mustangs dumped the 15th-seeded Timmins Ecole Secondaire Theriault Flammes 47-34. …………………………………………………… The 9th-seeded Belleville Nicholson Catholic Crusaders edged the 8th-seeded Timmins HVS Blues 46-45 in overtime.
In the quarterfinals, the 3rd-seeded Barrie Innisdale Invaders edged the 6th-seeded Peterborough Raiders 70-66. The Raiders included Geoff Hebert, John Munnings, Lawrence, Goulding, Gerow, Crowley, Golloher, Milne, Shevuluk, McAlpine and Young.
The top-seeded Windsor John L. Forster Spartans torched the host 9th-seeded Belleville Nicholson Catholic Crusaders 70-51. “It was packed and it was loud,” co-coach said John Pleli told the Windsor Star. “But by the third quarter we quieted them down a bit.” Nicholson stayed with the Spartans for a half, trailing 33-29 at the break. “We slowly but surely pulled away after that,” said Pleli. “We didn’t run a lot. They played zone and we just worked away at it.” Walter Robinson sparked the Spartans with 17 points off the bench. Steve Talbot added 13 and Ron Crumb 12. “Crumb was the big man for us in the first quarter,” said Pleli. “He hit a couple of shots right off the bat and that got us rolling.”
The 5th-seeded Thunder Bay St. Ignatius Falcons crushed the 4th-seeded Delhi District Raiders 69-56.
In the last quarterfinal, the 12th-seeded Etobicoke Marian Academy Mustangs defeated the 10th-seeded Rockcliffe Ashbury Colts 58-53. The Colts (coached by Andy Sparks, assisted by Mr. Service) included Dean Petridis, Oggie Kapetanovic, Johnson Ku, Dan Baxter, Tom Waterfall, Andrew Davis, Anthony Rankin, Nick Seppala, Craig Singh and Jason Dewar.
In the semis, the top-seeded Windsor John L. Forster Spartans defeated the 5th-seeded Thunder Bay St. Ignatius Falcons 81-69 as Steve Talbot scored 29 and Jermaine Jackson 21. Mike Poscoe paced the Falcons with 20.
In the other semi, the 3rd-seeded Barrie Innisdale Invaders defeated the 12th-seeded Etobicoke Marian Academy Mustangs 57-53 as Andrew Stevenson scored 15. Shawn Kemp led the Mustangs with 16.
In the bronze medal match, the 5th-seeded Thunder Bay St. Ignatius Falcons dumped the 12th-seeded Etobicoke Marian Academy Mustangs 68-43 as Emanuel Ostojic scored 16. Sean Kemp led the Mustangs with 13.
In the final, the 3rd-seeded Barrie Innisdale Invaders defeated the top-seeded Windsor John L. Forster Spartans 75-59 as Andrew Stevenson scored 25. Jermaine Jackson paced Forster with 20. Forster co-coach John Pleli told the Windsor Star “we tied it at 51 but we just missed some layups and a few easy shots. Then it came time to foul and their little point guard (Andrew Stevenson) made 10 of 12 in the fourth quarter.” The Invaders led 38-29 at the half and 49-43 after three quarters. “We used our half-court press in the third quarter and that’s what got us going,” said Pleli. “Then for some reason we started missing layups.” Pleli added that were defensive lapses. “It wasn’t that great in the first half and that put us in a hole,” he said. “We were down 21-12 after the first quarter so we constantly had to battle back.” Andrew Spencer had 21 points for Barrie. Jermaine Jackson paced the Spartans with 20. Walter Robinson added 10.
The bronze medalist Thunder Bay St. Ignatius Falcons: Emanuel Ostojic
The silver medalist Windsor John L. Forster Spartans: Jermaine Jackson; Randy Simonato; Shawn Gallant; Steve Talbot; Ujamaa Nuckles; Walter Robinson; Ron Crumb; Paul Eddy; Barry Jones; Bobby Williams; William Carter; Marchond Lagrone; Ron Crumb; Mardin Lopez; coach John Pleli; coach John Frederick; assistant Pat Osborne
The gold medalist Barrie Innisdale Invaders: Andrew Stevenson; Andrew Spencer; coach Kelman; coach Harrington