Down to the wire in Thursday game

January 21, 2017 · 0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

The Centre Dufferin District High School Royals junior basketball team had one of their toughest games of the season when they travelled to Orangeville on Thursday, January 13, to take on the Westside Secondary School Thunder.

The teams battle for the lead through the entire four quarters with the score within a couple of points for most of the game.

The game was so close that at the half the Thunder was holding on to a one point lead to start the second half with a 30-29 advantage.

Going into the fourth quarter the teams were locked in a 36-36 tie and a final push to get ahead had both teams make hard down-court drives to gain the upper hand as the clock started running out.

The Thunder were ahead by one point with one minute remaining.

After a time out to work on some strategy, the teams returned for the final minute.

A foul was called on the Centre Dufferin team and the Thunder ended the match with a successful free throw to take the game with a 44-42 win.

It was the first loss of the season for the Royals who are in first place in the District 4 junior standings.

“I think we should have had more intensity,” said Royals centre, Aidan Oliver. “It was a good game but if we had more intensity – we should have picked it up more. We beat Westside last time by around 15 points. We should have done that again.”

The Royals were back on home court on Monday, January 16, to host Emmanuel Christian High School.

This time the Royals left with a 43-27 win over the visitors.

The squad now has a 6-1 record for the season.

The Royals had one more regular season game on Wednesday, January 18, with results not available at press time.

District 4 playoffs are scheduled to get underway on February 13.