Two grade 12s, the Huskies’ Owen Ross tries to avoid the outstretched hand of the Broncos’ Seth Yonder during Saturday’s championship game of the 21st Annual Brendan MacLennan Memorial basketball tournament.
-by Bill Dunphy
To win a war of attrition, you need lots of troops in reserve.
The Cape Breton Highlands Huskies and Baddeck Broncos went at each other hard from the opening tip-off in the 21st Annual Brendan MacLennan Memorial basketball tournament championship game on Saturday.
Seven minutes into the first 10-minute quarter and both teams had collected enough fouls to shoot free throws for bonus on non-shooting fouls.
But by the end, with four players having fouled out, the Broncos prevailed with a 78-69 victory. The game was a nail-biter with Baddeck leading 22-21, 42-30 and 55-53 by quarters.
However, tournament MVP Adam Smith took control of the fourth quarter, scoring 12 of his 30 points to put some distance between the never-say-die Huskies.
Smith, who was struggling with a lower-body injury, said they didn’t let the two-point difference going into the final quarter change their game.
“I trust my teammates to work through any adversity, and whatever the outcome, to play at the best standard,” he said. “We have great chemistry and we’ll keep working hard at regionals.”
Broncos coach Jeff Garland said it was great to be back at The Brendan.
“We have built a good rivalry with CBHA over the years. They won our tournament this year and now we won theirs.”
Garland said, with regionals approaching, that he’s encouraged by how his team is playing. “The boys have shown their resilience when playing in tough moments. This is an important part of the season and they played really well this weekend despite having just one practice in the last two weeks.”
Along with Smith, three other Broncos hit double-digits in the game, including: Ken Tria and Gray Langley, 13 each; and Alex MacLeod, 10. Also scoring: Finlay Mullins, 6; Zach MacRae, Dylan MacDonald, and Colton MacKenzie, 2 each.
The Huskies were led by Ezra MacNeil with a 24-point game. Owen Ross and Caleb Timmons also had a big game with 19 and 13 points respectively.
Also scoring: Jace Bishop, 6; Lucas Ross, 4; Duncan Carmichael, 2; Carl Sieh, 1.
The Huskies made it to the championship by winning a thriller on Friday over the Inverness Rebels.
Both teams were 1-1 in round-robin play and the game unfolded like it was a championship game.
The Huskies held 8-5, 16-14 and 30-27 leads and with 24 seconds left in the game the score was tied 41-41.
Lucas Ross went one-for-two at the foul line and a field goal by Ezra MacNeil gave the lead back to the Huskies with 8.8 seconds left, ending the game with a 44-41 win.
Highlighting the play for the Rebels was Aiden Benner’ three three-pointers in the fourth quarter that gave Inverness a 41-36 lead. Benner shot six from downtown in total.
In Saturday’s consolation game, the winless Cabot Trail Blazers rallied for a 52-43 win over Inverness.
Four players from Cabot shot double-digits, including: Leelyn Connors, 14; Ethan Burton, 13; Grayson Barron, 12; and Aksel Larson, 10.
Hector MacEachern led the Rebels with a 29-point game. Also scoring: Alistair MacLeod, 6; Angus MacKay, 4; Aiden Benner, 3; Dustin Condon, 1.
The following are the scores from the round-robin:
Baddeck 52 (Adam Smith, 24; Alex MacLeod, 10; Ken Tria and Gray Langley, 6 each; Blaze MacKenzie, Dylan MacDonald, and Colton MacKenzie, 2 each); CBHA 44 (Ezra MacNeil, 15; Owen Ross, 6; Duncan Carmichael, Caleb Timmons, and Lucas Ross, 3 each; Jace Bishop, Kizta Brioso, Reese Timmons, Ned Brown, and Avery Evers, 2 each; Carl Sieh, 1).
Baddeck 50 (MacLeod, 15; Smith, 14; Langley, 11; Finlay Mullins, 4; Tria, Zach MacRae, and Seth Yonder, 2 each); Inverness 40 (Dustin Condon, 10; Aiden Benner, 9; Tyler Cormier, 8; Hector MacEachern, 7; Rory White, 3; Angus MacKay, 2; Thomas Burke, 1).
CBHA 66 (Owen Ross, 25; MacNeil, 13; Carmichael and Caleb Timmons, 9 each; Brown, 4; Lucas Ross, 3; Reese Timmons, 2; Sieh, 1); Cabot 52 (Grayson Barron, 31; Ethan Burton, 9; Leelyn Connors, 7; Askel Larson, 3; Brendon Taylor, 2).
Inverness 58 (MacEachern, 16; Burke, 11; Cormier and Alistair MacLeod, 6 each; Benner, 5; Alex MacGillivray and Eli Forance, 4 each; MacKay, 3; Condon, 2; White, 1); Cabot 43 (Larson, 15; Taylor, 9; Burton, 7; Connors, 6; Barron, 4; Declan Donovan, 2).
CBHA 44 (Caleb Timmons, 12; MacNeil and Owen Ross, 10 each; Carmichael and Lucas Ross, 6 each); Inverness 41 (Benner, 18; MacEachern, 7; Condon and MacKay, 6 each; White, 3; MacLeod, 1).
Baddeck 63 (Smith, 26; Langley, 17; Mullins, 7; Tria, 6; MacLeod, 5; MacDonald, 2); Cabot 50 (Barron, 23; Connors, 9; Larson, 7; Zach Boutilier, 4; Burton, 3; Donovan and Taylor, 2 each).