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in si de ha lto n. co m O ak vi lle B ea ve r | Th ur sd ay , Fe br ua ry 1 5, 20 18 | < j> Visit insidehalton.com for more coverage Halton Catholic basketball title up for grabs in highly-competitive league Nikki Wesley/Metroland St Thomas Aquinas' Reniel Jamison tries to squeeze past Corpus Christi defenders Luke DeGannes (left) and Matt Zhukas (24) in a meeting of two Halton Catholic senior boys basketball contenders Monday afternoon. Corpus Christi won 80-75 in double overtime, leaving both teams with 8-3 records. HERB GARBUTT hgarbutt@burlingtonpost.com With four seconds left in over­ time, Chris Sagl stepped to the line and nailed his first of two free throws, pulling the St. Thomas Aquinas Raiders within two points of the Corpus Christi Long­ horns. There wasn't a person in the Aquinas gym that didn't know what was coming next. One point wasn't going to do it. Sagl had no choice but to miss. As soon as the ball left his hand, the Aquinas guard sprinted toward the basket. With Long­ horn players battling to box out their opponents, the ball clanged off the rim. Sagl jumped and came down with the ball. With a hand in his face, he stretched out his arm and sent up an underhand floater that banked off the backboard and dropped through the hoop, ty­ ing the game 65-65. Corpus Christi would eventu­ ally get the win, 80-75 after a sec­ ond overtime period to deliver a little payback for the Raiders' overtime win on the Longhorns' court in January. But the play perfectly illustrat­ ed what coaches in the Halton Catholic Athletic Association (HCAA) senior boys' basketball league already know. This sea­ son, anything can happen and nothing comes easy. "There are five teams where anybody could beat anybody," said Longhorns coach Rob Bitu- rajac, whose team improved to 8-3 with the win. "And then even out­ side that group, there are good teams that are competitive. There are no easy games." As Aquinas and Corpus Chris­ ti were battling it out Monday, eight kilometres to the north, the Holy Trinity Titans were also locked in a back-and-forth strug­ gle with Milton's Jean Vanier. Trinity held off the Knights for a 60-57 win, improving its record to a league-best 10-2. "For as long as I've been coach­ ing, I don't remember a time in the league when there were so many teams that had two, three, four losses," said Trinity coach Andrew Saulez. "We split our games with Vanier. Corpus and Aquinas split their games. Vanier and Reding split." Vanier finished second to Trinity in the East Division at 9-3, with Reding third at 8-4. Corpus Christi and Aquinas finished tied atop the West at 8-3. In the 14 reg­ ular season head-to-head match­ es between those five teams, 11 were decided by six points or less. No team has been subjected to the roller-coaster more than Aquinas, the defending Halton champions. Six of their 11 games this season have been decided by a single possession or gone to overtime. "It makes for a fun season," said Aquinas coach Joe Polizzi. "There's something to gain from all those close games. You hope when the situation reappears in the playoffs, they relate back to those tight moments and think, 'We've been here. We know what it takes to close out those games.'" Polizzi said with many of the region's top players going to U.S. prep programs or playing in the Ontario Scholastic Basketball As­ sociation, the playing field has been levelled. Aquinas suffered one of its losses on a last-second free throw to Loyola, which fin­ ished the season at 4-8. "It has created a lot more par­ ity at the high school level," he said. "We've had close games against the three and four seeds in our division. There are some records that are not speaking to what a team a team is capable of." Organizers of the All-Ontario Catholic Classic recognized the depth of the Halton league when it doubled the region's entries from two teams to four. And even that wasn't enough. With the four spots determined by each team's record in their first head-to-head meeting, Corpus Christi missed out. The same scenario will play out in the HCAA playoffs where one, or more given the potential for upsets, of the top teams won't make it beyond the quarter-fi­ nals. "There's definitely going to be a team out (in the quarters) that could have just as easily won it all," Saulez said. "It's going to come down to the playoffs and who's playing well in February," Biturajac said. The Halton Catholic final is scheduled for Feb. 21. MARCHIBREAK ^ C A M R Si OPEN TO PLAYERS OF ALL LEVELS. 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