SJD claims junior, midget basketball titles

Sir James Dunn was also celebrating victory on Saturday after the school captured both the midget and junior division titles at the High School Boys Basketball City Championships at Korah.

In junior, the Eagles erased a third quarter double digit deficit and defeated the St. Mary's Knights 46-40. In midget, the Eagles squeaked out a 38-36 win over the Korah Colts.

In junior, full court pressure by Eagles allowed the team to force the Knights into several turnovers. The Eagles were able to execute on offense and take the lead late in the fourth quarter.

In the last 48 seconds of the game, the Eagles managed to convert seven of eight free throws as Navarre Cellini hit four of four and Mike Grant hit three of four attempts.

Cellini led the Eagles with 12 points while J.J. Bergamin added 10 and Jamie Weldon seven. John Mullin replied with 13 points for the Knights while Mark DeVuono chipped in 10 and Brad Symboluk seven.

The Eagles will head to CASS next weekend for the NOSSA AA playdowns while St. Mary's will participate in the NOSSA AAA championships in Sudbury.

In midget, Ryan Lidstone led the Eagles with 11 points, Anthony Fick added eight while Brett Davey and Kevin McEachern scored seven each. Kyle Cormier led the Colts with 12 points while Chris Casagrande added eight and Ben Ginter seven.

The championships were just two of four on Saturday for the Eagles as the girls volleyball teams were busy claiming a junior and senior division city championship at White Pines.

While the Sault elects not to send a midget representative to the NOSSA playdowns, the CASS Huskies will enter the NOSSA single A championships next weekend in Chelmsford as the North Shore's number one seed after claiming their first North Shore Championship in seven years on Thursday.

The Huskies nipped the Elliot Lake Atoms 32-30 in Elliot Lake as Nathan Abelson led the winners with nine points and Andrew Kirby added eight. Theo McInness replied with 12 points for the Atoms.

The junior Huskies, meanwhile, dropped their championship game 49-34 to Elliot Lake as Jeremy Hodgson led CASS with 13 points while Brook Moreau added seven.

*** MOST VALUABLE PLAYERS:

St. Mary's Knights guard John Mullin was selected the junior division's most valuable player this season. Mullin edged out nominees Mike Grant from Sir James Dunn and Jake Doan from White Pines.

Korah forward Chris Casagrande was named the midget division MVP on Saturday edging out teammate Nick Loureiro and Dave Pozzebon from St. Basil.