Orchard Park Defeats Parkside 67-60
By Bonnie Chen
This was it. The moment everyone was waiting for. The crowd lined up to enter the gymnasium to watch their teams compete in the 2009 Sr. Boy's Basketball Championship.
Taken place at Redeemer College, the Orchard Park Patriots and the Parkside Panthers travelled to Ancaster to prove who had the best team in the city. Both team's entered the gym with perfect regular season records and had numerous fans on their side. As half of the crowd chanted "P WHAT, P SIDE" and the other half, "O WHAT, O P", the tip-off at 8:30 most definitely silenced the audience, for a moment at least.
As Orchard Park took the ball into their possession, the fast-paced game everyone anticipated had already begun. Within the first quarter, the Patriots applied tremendous defense and held the Panthers to only 5 points. Entering the second quarter at a score of 18-5 for the Patriots, the team began to feel the pressure. The points jumped back and forth as the crowd supported their teams. Both of the teams continued to sink three-point shots as if they were that simple. The Panthers continued to prove why they were undefeated, taking the lead from the Patriots at half-time, 31-27.
After half-time, the Patriots re-entered the court with a different mindset. They continued to apply pressure but in return, the Panthers would do the same. During the third quarter, each member of the audience was on the edge of their seats, watching shot after shot by both teams. Orchard Park managed to tie up the Panthers in the middle of the third quarter and take a 2-point lead entering the final quarter.
In the fourth quarter, both teams were called for numerous fouls but continued their back and forth scoring. With a safe full court pass, the audience praised Taylor Black's impressive dunk against the Panthers. The Patriots managed to take a lead within the last few minutes, giving them a close win of 67-60. The audience jumped off the bleachers to congratulate the well-deserved boy's on their victory, as well as Coach McDonald and Lambert. Special mention goes out to Carlin McLean, Satar Wahidi, Nikola Manojlovic, Taylor Black, Wasse Wahidi and Jag Ghottra. The senior Patriots will now head into the SOSSA finals next week.
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