West Hill beats Oakwood, going to OFSAA

AAAA OFSAA Qualifiers First Round: West Hill 76 (Adrian Tomlinson 36) Oakwood 65 (Julian Clarke 27)

Two very intense basketball teams, both very capable of reaching higher rounds of OFSAA. A great game on both sides, quick rundown:

Oakwood started the game hot...more specifically, Clarke did. He hit 5 threes en route to a 20 points first half in which Oakwood was up 7, 33-26. West Hill played a zone most of the half and only stayed close thanks to the play of Tomlinson. In thet second half, however, the tide shifted midway through the third quarter as Oakwood was up 15. Alex Arthurs got a few and-1s and Tomlinson hit some more threes, he scored somewhere mid-20s after three quarters. The difference beginning in the second hafl was that West Hill played man with no help on Clarke, forcing others to do the job for Oakwood, which didn't pay off very well. Clarke finished with 27, but only two other players reached double figures. In the fourth, Tomlinson tore up Oakwood's 1-3-1 zone and West Hill's 2-2-1 press had Oakwood, more specifically their point guard, Jermaine Bernard, confused and rushed. With about 3 minutes left in the 4th, West Hill took a 2 point lead, 58-56, and did not look back. Bernard had 3 turnovers in the final 3 minutes of the game, and he was clearly shook under pressure, forcing Clarke to shift to point guard. Oakwood also missed 3 layups and an open elbow jumper in the final couple of minutes, and West Hill would capitalize on each mistake. Oakwood had the game in their hands and let it slip through. Only two players for Oakwood did not crack under pressure: Clarke and 5th-year centre Daniel Allen, who played a very efficient game on both ends. In the end, however, Tomlinson proved to be too much for Bernard and Jamie Asefa to handle at the top of the zone, getting bites off pump fakes, drawing contact, hitting threes and finding Arthurs in the high post for buckets attacking the rim.

Great game by both squads...Oakwood has a bright future with many talented juniors as well as Clarke only in grade 11 back next year, and Bernard who could very well develop to be a top 10 point guard in the GTA. West Hill has an extremely talented group that could very well make a push to the final four of OFSAA this year. Congratulations West Hill!!

I believe West Hill still needs to win two more games to advance to OFSAA: Their AAAA semi-final and either the final or back door game.

Millerlite, very accurate and well written break down of the game!

It was definitely an exciting game to be a part of and I'm very proud of our guys' heart in not backing down and fighting back against a very tough Oakwood team...

The only unfortunate thing for Oakwood is that the game was only the Quarter-Finals, and arguably we shouldn't have been matched up until at least the Semi's. But those are circumstances beyond our control and neither I nor the Oakwood Coach made any complaints....

As Rimrocker said though, we still have to make it through the Semi-Finals and Finals (and if we don't win the Finals, there would be a Backdoor/Play-In game...) 2 more wins out of a maximum 3 games left...

Still a lot of basketball left to be played with a Semi-Final game on Tuesday vs. the winner of Etobicoke @ Newtonbrook which we have to focus on. These are both hungry teams that also want to make their own OFSAA dreams a reality! (as do Eastern Commerce and Silverthorn)

Thanks for the support and great recap though!

The field has been narrowed somewhat with the elimination of a very tough and talented Oakwood team.

As Coach Phillippe points out there's still a lot of basketball to be played.