Timmins High, a hard working team, that tries till the end, lost 79-70 against Sudbury Lasalle High School this morning and is out of the running for tonight’s consolation final for the bronze medal.
That game to be played tonight at 6 p.m. at Timmins High will feature St. Catharine Eden High School against Lasalle.
Today in the Gold medal round semifinal, Mcdonnell (#2) has defeated Toronto Crescent School (#3) 65-49 to advance to the finals against the victor in the match between No.1 seeded Ottawa Ashbury College and London’s John Paul II High School.
In the other consolation round semis St. Catharine’s Eden High School defeated Oakville St. Ignatius 47-44 this morning setting up the match up with Lasalle this evening.
The gold medal championship game starts at 8 p.m.at Timmins High.
From the agony of defeat to the thrill of victory, the Timmins High and Vocational School Blues experienced the full cycle of emotions on Tuesday as they suffered a hard-fought 55-44 loss to eighth seeded Assumption High School from Burlington the afternoon game played at O’Gorman High.
Hours later they came back to triumph 43-38 over DSBONE 1 rival the 18th ranked Temiskaming Shores Timiskaming DSS Saints in the evening match also at O’Gorman High.
The victory advanced the Blues to the consolation round semi-finals this morning against Sudbury Lasalle High School. The winner will move on to play in the Bronze Medal game at 6 p.m. at the Timmins High gym.
If they had their choice the Blues would rather be in the gold medal round semi-final. But that was not to be despite a hard fought effort the Blues succumbed to the Assumption squad
At the end of the first quarter Assumption had jumped to a 17-8 lead. It was 29-13 at the half. Assumption maintained that 16-point lead with a 42-26 score at the end of third.
At one-point mid-way through the 4th Assumption built a 51-27 lead. The Blues came back for a 17-4 run late in the quarter to come within 11 points but time ran out.
“We struggled with offense in the first half,” Timmins High coach Peter Graham, who is also the tournament convenor. “I should have called a timeout in the second quarter to get the team more organized and as we struggled to set up a flow to our game.”
“We played much better in the second half,” Graham added. “But when you score less than 15 points in the first half it is hard to comeback and win.”
The adept playmaking and three-point shooting accuracy of the Assumption team was the decisive factor in the outcome.
“Assumption is a very good team,” Graham said. “They played hard all night and are well coached.”
“Difference was that Assumption found ways to score and preventing us from setting up a tempo,” said Graham.
“Our team got off to a slow start at the beginning,” said Assumption assistant coach Doreen Bonsu, “But we started to play our game and played hard the rest of the way against a very good Timmins High team,” she said
Leading the scoring for Assumption was Marcus Upshaw with 17 points and Kristopher Rotherman added 13 points.
“There is no secret in the way we play,” Upshaw said in explaining his team’s success in the tournament and against Timmins High. “We have played together for a while and we play as a team trying to find that open shot – we have great team chemistry.”
For the Blues 6’ 4” forward Chris Lachapelle led the team with 15 points, followed by Adam Tambeau and Kevin Leblond with 7 each.
“Lachapelle played with a lot of grit and it showed in the second half with his play under the basket drawing fouls and also making three point shots,” said coach Peter Graham
He also praised the leadership of Adam Tambeau, Matti Kohtala and Jackson Martin fourth-year players for the Blues.
With the game out of reach Coach Graham inserted Evan Mackey and Kyle Seaton two grade 11 students into the game.
“Mackey and Seaton work so hard,” Graham said. “I wanted to reward them by having them play some minutes.”
Mackey responded by scoring a three-pointer from the far right corner of the court with seconds to play in the game.
Late in the game Coach Graham inserted two players off the bench to give them a taste of OFSSAA competition and number double zero responded by sinking a three pointer.
The evening victory against Timiskaming DSS was the second win for THVS against the Saints in two weeks having defeated them on February 26 to capture the DSBONE championship.
The game was very close with Timmins High leading 14-10 after one quarter; 21-18 after the second and 35-28 at the end of the third quarter. Timmins High withstood a late rally from Timiskaming DSS to emerge triumphant over their regional rival 43-38.
Leading scorer for Timmins High was Adam Tambeau with 13 points and Chris Lachappelle with 10.
Top scorers for TDSS were Christian Ethier with 16 points, Sam Kester and Randy Beuchamp each had 8 points.
