The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Iroquois Ridge takes control of Halton East ' B lazers rout Trinity in hoops showdown By Jon Kuiperij ted eight. Sal Sayeed, Jamie Pudwell and Dave Brown each scored six for the Trailblazers as 10 different players His team had ju st posted its second- scored at least one field goal. highest point total of the Halton high Scott Brittain, the Ridge star who school senior boys' basketball season, will play for Boston University next sea but Jordan Clarke wanted to talk about son, was held to five points in limited defence. action because of foul trouble. Still, "We played great defence and we Brittain made his presence felt, accord were just rotating well," the 15-year- ing to Clarke. old guard said Thursday after helping "When he was on the court, his th e Iroquois Ridge presence there m ade a "W e've been Trailblazers to a 67-52 vic whole lot of difference and tory over the Holy Trinity w orking on our gave us a lot of confi Titans. `W e play offence defence, and to dence," Clarke said, noting pretty well. We've been see improvement B rittain was out of the working on our defence, lineup in the Trailblazers' like th a t was and to see im provem ent previous m eeting w ith pretty satisfying." like that was pretty satisfy Trinity. ing." "We knew that when we Ridge was impressive at Iroquois Ridge were more at full strength, both ends of th e floor, g uard Jordan Clarke we should be able to beat claiming a split of the sea them ." son series against Trinity and taking The Titans, m eanwhile, started control of the East Division. The slowly and finished even slower, allow Trailblazers, who lost their previous ing a 12-3 Ridge run to open the fourth m atchup against the Titans 57-45 a quarter and surrendering 26 points in m onth ago, are 8-1 while Trinity and the final frame. the St. Thomas Aquinas Raiders sit "I thought they looked dorm ant second with 7-2 marks. from the get-go," said Trinity coach Vic Each team has one game rem ain Juzenas. "I was trying to get our guys ing in th e reg u lar season, w hich to up the tempo but we just seemed resum es in two weeks after a break for really slow and flat. We're going to exams. have to try and fix it or it will be a short Of course, with last year's realign playoff run." m ent of the Halton playoff system, One reason the Titans m ight have none of those team s will face each been short on energy is the fact the other in post-season play. The Titans team had either played or practiced will compete in the largest school-size each of the previous 10 days. Trinity designation (AAAA), Ridge will play for competed in a Walkerton tournam ent an AAA title and Aquinas will contend last weekend. for an AA crown. That m eans the shutdown for exams However, Clarke said winning the m ight come at a good tim e for the East Division is still im portant to the Titans. Trailblazers. "We can get a little break and get "If we beat (Aquinas after the exam away from basketball," Juzenas said. break), it will give us confidence to do "(When we get back) we can pretend well in the playoffs," said Clarke, who it's the beginning of the season when scored 19 points against the Titans and we were a lot sharper." set up his team m ates for several open Conor Meschino led Trinity with 11 lay-ups as well. points while Jake Zagar scored 10. Nate Gauthier added 11 points for Mike Meschino added eight in the los Iroquois Ridge while Zarko Veber net ing cause. BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR BARRIE ERSKINE / OAKVILLE BEAVER Iroquois Ridge's Jordan Clarke (center) drives to the basket during the Trailblazers' 67-52 win over the Holy Trinity Titans in high school senior boys' basketball action Thursday. Wildcats winless but competitive A lthough W hite Oaks Secondary School's senior boys' basketball team en ters the exam break w ith an 0-8 m ark, th e Wildcats are hardly a typical winless squad. White Oaks has played each of its Halton East Division opponents tough at least once this sea son, with six of its losses coming by a combined 30 points. That includes a 59-57 loss to St. Thomas Aquinas, when the Raiders won the game with a buzzer-beating three-pointer, and a 59-54 overtime defeat at the hands of the Holy Trinity Titans (division leaders at the time). In fact, White Oaks' points differential this sea son is superior to th a t of King's Christian Collegiate and Oakville Trafalgar, East Division team s th a t sported 2-6 records going into Thursday's play. "It's been a frustrating season for them and for me, to be that close all the tim e," Wildcats coach Bev Bemdt said. "Four of the eight losses, at least, were ours to have, but th at's sport. There's a win ner and a loser every n ig h t" Bem dt concedes her players are "angry and hurting" at times, but marvels at the positive atti tude the Wildcats have maintained through all the close losses, noting the effort and work ethic even at practices has remained a constant. White Oaks has faded down the stretch in a num ber of games, som ething Bem dt partially See M om ents page 25 Keep them WARM & COZY this winter A new high efficiency furnace installed by the experts at A ir Calm Clim ateCare delivers improved comfort, better efficiency, significant fuel savings and most of all, a little peace-of-mind. A m ember of ClimateCare, Ontario's largest heating & cooling cooperative 9 0 5 -8 4 4 -7 3 5 4 e - m a il: a ir c a lm @ c lim a t e c a r e .c o m F IR E P L A C E S AIR CALM CLIMATECARE. The Heating and Cooling Professionals who C.A.R.E. C o m fo rt. A c c o u n t a b ly . Refiabitity. Excellence. FU RN A CES B O IL E R S IN F L O O R H E A T IN G A IR C O N D IT IO N E R S IN D O O R A IR Q U A L IT Y