By: Sarah Maat
Scarborough, ON - Husam Shallo and Deandre Goulbourne both tallied double-doubles in the Centennial Colts 70-64 victory over the La Cite Coyotes on Sunday.
Despite a few rocky quarters, Shallo helped recentre the Colts as he put up 13 points and 10 rebounds in the win. Goulborne also contributed with 11 points and 10 rebounds of his own. Tavonn Mars–Buckley led the Colts in scoring with 14 points.
La Cite has struggled this season with a 3-12 record and a 11-game losing streak, however, they brought the heat against Centennial (12-4) and gave them plenty of trouble throughout the match.
"It's not going to be an easy game, it's going to be a dogfight," head coach Michael Jackman said. "We knew coming in here that they were going to be a scrappy team. They've kept even pace with a lot of OCAA teams this year despite their record, so we just told the guys to respect what's going on, and secure our structure and our defence."
The Colts had a solid first quarter as they easily went up 7-0 in the opening minutes. The Coyotes then quickly responded with a zone on defence that locked down the paint and only awarded the Colts a single free throw in six minutes of play. With two minutes left in the first, the teams were tied 10-10.
The quarter ended with a crowd-pleasing Omar Nur dunk that sent the Colts into the second quarter up four points 16-12.
In the second quarter, the Colts' offence started to crumble as the Coyotes' shots began to drop. The Coyotes only made one of their first 10 three-point attempts, but they would then rally to close the first half with three consecutive threes to grow their lead 35-28.
In the second half, the Colts had a good response prepared, and they put in five consecutive points to close the gap 35-33. The Coyotes kept up, however, until a turning point layup from Abdalmuhaymin Sudani changed the tides in the Colts favour.
Shallo capitalized on the bucket to then set up an aggressive offence for Centennial. Their lead looked promising until the Coyotes closed the gap with a buzzer beating three-pointer making it 46-44 to end the third.
In the fourth, Centennial continued to add, going up 60-49 over La Cite. However, the Coyotes were not finished, and a few good defensive stops later they would find themselves within striking distance at 64-60.
In the end, Centennial held off the Coyotes advances and kept their lead to win it 70-64.
"The rest of the season is going to be exactly what you saw. It's going to be scrappy; it's going to be tight finishes because we are coming to the playoffs," Jackman said. "For us it is just making sure that we are the end of those Ws and those scrappy games. We must play 40-minutes of good basketball."