By Larry Moko

Will the last team to qualify also be the last team standing at the 2019 OFSAA boys’ Triple A basketball tournament?

The Cathedral Gaels certainly hope so.

Due to postponements resulting from snow storms earlier this week, the Gaels had their Golden Horseshoe Athletic Conference playoffs pushed back twice. But on Thursday, in Milton, Cathedral finally punched its ticket to the annual provincial high school showcase competition with an 82-57 victory over the Jean Vanier Knights.

Two days earlier, the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic Athletic Association champions took the GHAC semifinal, 76-52, over Oakville’s Garth Webb Chargers.

“We tried to stay focused,” Cathedral coach Luca Fortino said of the two rescheduled dates. “We’re actually the 18th and final team to be determined.”

This year’s OFSAA tournament is being held March 4-6 at Hamilton’s Glendale and Saltfleet District secondary schools.

Cathedral is seeded No. 3.

The Gaels raced to a 27-11 first-quarter lead against the Knights, who recently won their first Halton Tier 1 championship in the school’s brief history. Cathedral then padded its lead to 45-26 at the half and 62-41 by the end of the third quarter. The only real threat from Vanier came during its 10-1 run to start the fourth quarter.

Fortino is pleased with the way his squad (40-6 overall this season) has been responding when the opposition goes on a run.

“Basketball is a game of runs,” he said. “It’s a question of how you react to that adversity and stop it. Our guys know how to battle back, turn it around and make it a positive.”

Forward Nathan Bilamu paced the Cathedral attack with 28 points – 13 in the first quarter.

Malcolm Maganda added 16 points while Josh Coward chipped in with 10. Kionte Collins and Zach Powell netted eight points apiece.

“It wasn’t our day,” Vanier coach Adam Cholewka said. “They imposed their will at points with their physicality. I think a lot of that comes from playing in that very tough Hamilton Catholic league. You could see there was no doubt in their mind about who was going to win.”

Powell, a Grade 12 guard/forward, said it was a solid performance by the Gaels. “We locked down on defence and were able to hit a lot of 3 balls,” he said.

It was a steal by Powell that led to a basket and halted the Knights momentum midway through the fourth quarter. Said Fortino: “Zach is our unsung hero. I’ve always told him ‘no matter what happens in the game I know I can always rely on you for all the little things.’ He’s a great defender and sees the floor amazingly well. He sees mismatches and attacks those mismatches on the floor. He does a little bit of everything. He’s got those intangibles.”

Powell describes himself as the team’s “voice” on defence. “I do what I have to do to help the team win,” he said.

Cathedral captured a bronze medal at OFSAA in 2018.

“I’m confident,” Powell said of Cathedral’s next OFSAA challenge which starts Monday at Glendale (noon) against Picton’s 18th seeded Prince Edward Collegiate Institute Panthers. “I think we have a good chance to win it. We came third last year and I think our team is better this year.”

Source: Marnie Jadon

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