CDDHS Sr. Royals win District 4 championship

Written By BRIAN LOCKHART

It has been a stellar season for the Centre Dufferin District High School Royals senior basketball team.

They capped it off by winning the District 4 championship on Tuesday, February 19, in their home gym.

The team was undefeated for the season and finished in first place in the District standings.

Over the regular season they scored 436 point over seven games while allowing only 165 against.

After dispatching Erin District High School in the semi-final they met up with Wellington Heights Secondary School for the championship game.

After a slow start and falling behind by a few points the Royals turned on their A game and were leading 47-21 midway in the third quarter.

The Royals were almost unstoppable on offence with a lot of skill setting up the play and hitting the hoop.

They won the game 79-41 to claim the District championship.

“We started off slow – we weren't expecting them to come out hot,” said Royals point guard Brandon Powell after the game. “We had to pick up our intensity and we started pushing down on them. We were pushing the ball a lot and kept our intensity up. Our defence did really well, and we were getting shots.”

The team had only a couple of days before heading off to compete at the regional level in CWOSSA.

“We're going to practice a lot, and get our mindset, get focused and don't take our mind off the goal,” Brandon said.

After Erin took an opening lead, coach Matt Barlow said the squad responded correctly to counter their opponent's offence.

“The came out and they had three great open shots and we've seen them do that before,” Barlow said. “Had they hit a few more it would have been interesting to see how we reacted but we made a quick adjustment at seven points and we were able to come back. We were moving the ball well. Defensively I think we took their main guy out a bit once we made that adjustment. We just denied them the ball.”

The team has known for a while they would be going to CWOASS even if they lost this game, as a AA school and first place finishers.

The Royals will now go on to compete against other District champions at the regional level.