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38 - The Oakville Beaver, Friday February 27, 2009 www.oakvillebeaver.com Aquinas seniors tame Lions By Jon Kuiperij BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR GOING UP: St. Thomas Aquinas Raiders' Charlie Drouin (right) and Aldershot's Greg Edelsward go up for a rebound Wednesday at Sheridan College. Aquinas overcame a 40-point outing by the Lions' Chris Bothwell to beat Aldershot 81-65 and win the Halton high school senior boys' basketball A/AA championship. LIESA KORTMANN / OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday's Halton high school senior boys' basketball A/AA championship game featured both the expected and the unexpected. The St. Thomas Aquinas Raiders, seen by many as one of the top high school teams in the province, concluded their undefeated Halton season with an 81-65 victory over the Aldershot Lions at Sheridan College. But perhaps the bigger story was the torrid shooting display by Aldershot's Chris Bothwell, who drained seven three-pointers and finished the contest with 40 points. "I was feeling it, first of all. Our point guard recognized I was hot and kept feeding me," said Bothwell, who also cracked the 40-point plateau in a tournament last year against the Milton District Mustangs. "I was nervous at first, but a little more comfortable once I hit my first few." Bothwell not recruited Surprisingly, Bothwell has not been recruited by any universities as of yet. He has applied to Laurier, Waterloo, Guelph and McMaster for next season. "He's an awesome player. We've been trying to get him noticed for a while but, being such a small school, it's tough for him to get noticed," Aldershot head coach Nick Manojlovic said. "His play has been like that all year. He's a gym rat. He's in the gym all the time. I'm not surprised that he shot the ball well, but 40? That was the surprising thing." The Raiders, who based their defensive scheme around stopping Bothwell, were also impressed. "That was an amazing performance. We knew he could shoot. He's a good player, and he just ran off screens and started hitting threes," said Aquinas' Kyle Enright, who hit five three-pointers of his own and led the Raiders with 19 points. "Forty points in a senior boys' game is pretty good." Unfortunately for the Lions, it wasn't good enough to keep them within striking distance of the talent-laden Raiders, who won bronze at last year's provincial AA championships. Aldershot started the game well, building a 15-9 lead by the midway point of the first quarter, but the Raiders scored 29 of the next 33 points to take control. "We tried to hold off the horses there. We knew it was a matter of time before the run came," Manojlovic said. "I've seen (the Raiders) play multiple times... and I've never seen them shoot the ball like that." Matt Blaha added 16 points, Charlie Drouin scored 13 and Ryan Thomson had 11 for the Raiders, who led 49-26 at the half. "It was one of our best shooting games overall that we've had this season," Aquinas head coach Mark Maga said. "Individually, some guys have shot better, but as a team this was our best shooting performance." Both teams are back in action today (Friday) as they attempt to qualify for their respective Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) tournaments. Aquinas will visit Scarborough Ascension in a AA qualifying game, while Aldershot will be home to Hamilton's L'Academie Catholique Mere-Teresa in a A qualifier. Special teams help Blades take control BURLINGTON -- Five-on-five, there hasn't been much separating the Burlington Cougars and Oakville Blades. When either team is shorthanded, however, it's been a drastically different story. Thanks in large part to the dominance of their special teams units, the Blades are in position to eliminate Burlington from the Ontario Junior Hockey League playoffs tonight (Friday, 8:30 start) when they host the Cougars at Joshua's Creek Arenas. Oakville took a 3-1 lead in the bestof-seven MacKinnon Division semifinal series Tuesday with a 8-2 rout of the Cougars at Burlington's Wave Twin Rinks. All but one of the Blades' goals Tuesday came on the power play, as the defending league champions improved to 11-for-28 in the series with the man advantage. The Cougars' power play, meanwhile, was held scoreless in six opportunities. Burlington has managed only one goal in 29 power-play chances through the first four games of the series. When playing at even strength in the series, the Blades have only one more goal than Burlington (9-8). "We knew that was what was going to decide the games," Oakville defenceman Taylor Farris said following Tuesday's contest. "They've got a great power play, so if they were going to score on theirs, we'd have to score on ours, and we worked on our penalty killing as much as we could." Blades forward Ryan Murphy, who scored twice Tuesday, added, "When you get those power plays, it's a great chance to bear down and score a goal. At the end of the day, teams taking penalties are going to pay." Burlington certainly did both of those Tuesday -- taking penalties and paying the price. The Cougars trailed only 3-1 after two periods, but unraveled in the final frame. Burlington was whistled for seven minor penalties and five misconducts in the third period. Oakville capitalized with goals by Tyler Leimbrock (two), Dan Hunt, Murphy and Farris. "Some (penalties) you don't deserve, and some you do. It's just a matter of being smart," said Burlington captain Daniel Koudys, who scored his third goal of the series in the losing cause. "We're all really frustrated. (Wednesday) I will sit and chat with the guys. There are a lot of stories everywhere in hockey of teams coming back from 3-1 (series deficits). We just have to turn the negatives into positives." Lukas Ciotti had Burlington's other goal Tuesday, opening the scoring in the first period. Chris Muise and Michael Ingoldsby were Oakville's other goal scorers. Jeremy Welsh had three assists for the Blades, and Matt Hache made 27 saves to record the win. Should Burlington stave off elimination tonight, Game 6 of the series will be played tomorrow (Saturday) at Wave Twin Rinks, beginning at 8 p.m. -- Jon Kuiperij INSTALL NOW AND ENJOY FOR TWO WINTERS (O.A.C.) FREE COLD BASEMENT? WE CAN HELP!!! Winner PROVIDING COMFORT FOR 80 YEARS OPEN SATURDAYS Heating · Air Conditioning · Fireplaces Commerce Cr Crt Walkers Line Guelph Line QEW 3440 Fairview Street, Burlington Fairview Street 905-634-7701 Monday-Friday 8:00am - 4:30pm www.oakvillebeaver.com Saturday 10:00am - 4:00pm m