Runaway victory

Sometimes, Colin Hunter says, you just get lucky.

That, or you’re a pretty good shot.

Let’s go with the latter in Hunter’s case. The Sir Winston Churchill senior dropped 33 points on the St. Ignatius Falcons Thursday night, raining threes seemingly at will and propelling the Trojans to a 93-64 season-ending Superior Secondary Schools Athletic Association senior boys basketball tournament triumph.

Justin Fui, better known as a battering ram on the gridiron, added 20 points in the win, which won’t officially be recognized as an SSSAA championship, that title falling victim to the teachers refusal to take on extra-curricular activities for much of the school year.
Matthew Mustapic led the Falcons charge with 20 points, but faced with double-digit deficits for most of the second half, it was not enough to keep St. Ignatius in the contest.

“It’s great. Three years in a row, it doesn’t get much better than that,” said Hunter, whose team played a condensed season once the labour dispute with the province ended, but will not represent the league at regionals or provincials, which were held last month.
The Trojans captured last year’s senior boys crown, and took the junior title in 2011.

“It’s a great win too. We played as a team, no arguing. It was good.”

Up 11after St. Ignatius’s Nick Soulias cut the difference to 64-53, the run-and-gun Trojans showed no sign of wear and tear, despite an 84-44 win over Hammarskjold earlier in the day in the tournament semifinal.

Hunter started a 16-0 Churchill run early in the final stanza with a three-pointer, a stretch that erased any doubts of a comeback by the Falcons, wearied by their 89-79 overtime win against Westgate in their own matinee semifinal.

Churchill coach Cory Keeler said it was a bit of a bittersweet finish for his troops.

“We started, stopped in December, came back again. That was a little tough for the guys to maybe get motivated and a little tough for the coaches to get motivated as well and making sure they were always there,” Keeler said.

“And we lost a few players. I think every team lost a few players. You never get everybody back. That was kind of tough. It’s tough to have a practice with five, six, seven guys. But in the end they came through and they always seemed to show up when it mattered.”

In the bronze-medal match, Mitchell Jackowski scored 16 to lead Westgate to a 50-45 win. Keenan Postans had 20 for the Vikings.
In the junior boys championship, Austin Rapinda had 18 to lead Churchill to a 59-56 win over St. Ignatius, who got 15 from Trevor Luby.

St. Patrick defeated Hammarskjold 68-36 in the third-place game.