Running away with WOSSAA gold

  Lord Dorchester defeats Westminster, 50-36, in junior boys' 1A hoops final

Thursday, February 22, 2018

By Rob J. Ross 

LONDON, ON. - For the first time this century, the Lord Dorchester Beavers are WOSSAA junior boys' basketball champions.

The Beavers shot out of the chute to an early lead and never looked back, on way to a 50-36 win over London Westminster in the gold medal game, at the Western Ontario Secondary Schools Athletic Association (WOSSAA) 1A tournament, at Monseigneur Bruyere school.

"It was a great team performance. Everybody came out firing. We all wanted this more than anything and it's been awhile since LDSS has won WOSSAA. We wanted it badly for the school," said Charlie Quance, who led the Beavers with 16 points. "We kept up the intensity and it was a good all-around team effort."

"It's just awesome that we took the gold."

The Beavers jumped out to a 10-4 lead and they were certainly OK. Powered by an offensive attack involving multiple players, LDSS was in command by half-time, up 24-12.

"All of the guys can score so it's not just one guy. A lot of teams have just two or three guys do all of the work. We have so many guys do the work, not only scoring, but defensively and bringing intensity to the floor, every single game," Quance said.

The Beavers carried a roster of 17 players all season, with a dozen seeing regular action. LDSS finished first in the Thames Valley Region Athletic (TVRA) East Division with an 8-2 record, before winning the TVRA 1A playoff title, on Wednesday.

"One of our strong points is that we have 12 guys who can play regularly so they're always hungry to play," Beavers' coach Curt Pollard said. "Our big guys learned that they could take the ball to the basket and that really made a difference in the game. That took some of the pressure off of our point guards."

Opponents also learn, usually when they're already lagging behind on the floor and up on the scoreboard, the Beavers are a very quick group.

"We come out fast, go fast, play defence fast and run our offence fast. That was true for most of our season," said Pollard. "By the end of the (WOSSAA gold) game, Westminster was dragging themselves on the floor. They were tired."

Mitchell, the Huron-Perth champions, also faced wave after wave of constant Dorchester pressure in the WOSSAA semifinal. The Beavers won 46-37, with Garrett Snyders dropping in 13 points. Trent Patterson chipped in with eight points and 17 rebounds.

Snyders had 13 points against Westminster.

Now that LDSS has ended one drought, the goal is to repeat the success at the senior level.

"My focus is that from two years from now we'll have a program that can compete to go to OFSAA," Pollard said. "Part of the reason I had so many guys is that of the 17, about nine of the guys are moving up to senior and eight will be around for junior. We should have two competitive teams at Dorchester."

In 2016, Dorchester's senior girls competed at OFSAA, two years after winning WOSSAA at the junior level.