Written By Brian Lockhart

The Centre Dufferin District High School Royals won their first game of the season over the Westside Secondary School Thunder from Orangeville.

The home opener took place in the gym at Centre Dufferin on Monday, Dec. 1.

It was a well-played game by both teams, who showed a lot of speed and good ball-handling on the court.

The Royals took an early lead in the first quarter and managed to stay ahead for the entire game.

Centre Dufferin was leading 17-13 early in the second quarter, then moved to 28-19 at the half.

At the end of the third quarter, the Royals extended that lead to 16 points and were ahead 45-29.

Westside put out a big effort in the final quarter, matching the Royals hoop-for-hoop, but they couldn't gain any ground.

The Royals left the court with a 57-41 win.

“I think we started a little slow, but then then our coach and our teammates picked us up, and we did well going on from there,” said Royals centre Mikey LeGresley after the game. 

“Our rebounds were lousy until our coach gave us a predicament – if anyone gets a rebound off of you, you're subbing off. So, if someone gets a rebound off of you, you're coming off, and the next man is coming on. On offence, we did well passing and creating shots. We were good at the passing cut – pass the ball and cut to the basket – we got a couple of hoops doing that.”

Mikey added, “Our transitions were good. We'd get the rebound and throw it up the court for a transition and a bucket. On defence, the best we did was we've been working on a pack drill, and I think we did well on that. I think we need to work on talking a little bit (more), but we played a good game.”

The Royals will be back on their home court on Wednesday, Dec. 10, to host Norwell District Second School.

Game time is at 4 p.m.