STORY BY JEANYLYN LOPEZ
“Grind daily, celebrate rarely,” said the head coach of Sheridan’s men’s basketball team after winning 100-60 against the Niagara Knights last Friday.
“I was pretty pleased with [the game] at times. This group would really like to win a championship,” said head coach Jim Flack. “The score doesn’t indicate what the performance was really like. The last seven minutes of the game was just an embarrassment to what we’re trying to do here.”
Trevor Williams, a 6-foot-1 guard said, “We should have won by a little bit more, we started settling in the fourth quarter. In the fourth quarter our defense started getting a little slow… we need to keep focus for the whole game.”
The beginning of the first quarter was tightly contested, but it didn’t take long for the Bruins to find their offensive stride. Sheridan ended the quarter on a 14-1 run against the Knights.
Double Blue held the visitors to only 2 points in the second quarter while Sheridan scored 18 points. The Bruins ended the half leading 51-16.
Sheridan went on a 17-2 run in the third quarter but the Knights would end the third on an 8-2 run. Despite that, the Knights were still down 80-31 after the third.
Although Niagara outscored the Bruins by 9 in the fourth quarter, it barely put a dent in the 49-point lead Sheridan built after the third. Bruins won the game by 40 points.
Williams contributed 13 points, 8 assists, and shot 46 per cent from the field.
“I wasn’t really looking to score, I was looking to get everyone involved,” said Williams. “We had a bad Christmas break. We had a couple of losses and the team was down, so just to get everyone involved and get the spirit back.
“I’m a very unselfish player,” added Williams. “If they’re open I’ll always pass, I’ll always look for the best shot.”
Forward Roshean Keen had 12 points, 9 rebounds, and 2 steals. Shooting guard Cory Cooper contributed 12 points to the team. Dylan Periana, 5-foot-9, had 14 points, 4 assists, and 3 steals. Point guard Alan Anderson had 8 points and 8 assists. Small forward Jerome Guthrie had 11 points, and 2 steals, while big man Paul Williams had 8 rebounds and 4 blocked shots.
The Bruins held Niagara to 10 assists in comparison to Double Blue’s 30 assists. Sheridan also converted the Knights’ 34 turnovers to 36 points while Niagara had 17 points off the Bruins turnovers. Double Blue forced Knights’ guard Mark Lemos to turn the ball over 13 times alone. The Bruins also had 16 steals to Niagara’s 9.
Double Blue now has a 10-1 OCAA record while the Knights are 0-12.
Sheridan will be on the road to play St. Clair at their home on Jan. 24.