NEWS RELEASE
ORILLIA LAKERS
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The Orillia Lakers U14 boys continued their excellence on the court last weekend, winning their second AAA tournament in a row in Newmarket.
The Lakers went 4-0 in round-robin play with wins of 63-55 over Ottawa Shooting Stars 1, 60-42 over Halton, 67-42 over North Toronto Huskies and 70-46 over Burlington Force A, earning a chance to play the host IEM Spartans in the championship game.
Assistant coaches Alex Timpano and Nana Adusei were in charge for the weekend and made critical adjustments in the final after IEM led 15-2 early. The Lakers got back into the game and then took over at the end, finishing with an 18-2 run to win 49-38. The Lakers duo of Caden McFee and Kelechi Nwokeke shared tournament MVP honours.
Bad news came midweek, however, when the Lakers were not named as one of the 14 teams competing in the OBLX and, therefore, won’t be eligible for the provincial championship tournament in April. While the Lakers felt they had the resume to move into the OBLX, they were not selected as the Ontario Basketball Association, according to policy, only looked at the results of the Lakers’ six Ontario Basketball League games. Despite winning all six by double digits, the OBA felt the competition level was not high enough.
The disappointment was real for the Lakers, having done literally all they could and still coming short of their goal. The team decided to refocus on winning the Hoop City league and winning Division 1 of the Ontario Cup.
In their first game after the bad news, the Lakers played poorly and without their usual energy, losing 69-65 to IHS in Hoop City action. The loss put the Lakers in danger of falling out of the top eight in the Hoop City League and out of the A championship bracket altogether.
An hour and a half later, the team would face that possibility against a Markham Gators team that the OBA selected ahead of the Lakers for the OBLX and was looking to jump over the Lakers in the standings. The Lakers responded with a complete performance, won 62-50, moved their final Hoop City record to 9-3 and earned either the third or fourth seed heading into the A playoffs.
The team is now 28-3 overall and returns to Ontario Basketball League play this weekend. The Lakers would like to thank their sponsors JL Construction, Oscar’s Variety and Market, 125 Breakfast, Master Lube, The Buck Group and IRP Industrial Rubber.
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