The OCAA Men’s Basketball Championship bronze medal match saw the reigning gold medal winning Sheridan Bruins defeat the Redeemer Royals 119-84. With the medal, Sheridan has now earned provincial hardware in back-to-back tournaments.
Both Sheridan and Redeemer came out of the gate swinging, each of their offences seemingly scoring on command. Back and forth the programs went, finishing the first quarter shootout with a 7 point Redeemer lead (37-30). Redeemer seemed to run out of gas in the second quarter, getting outscored 30-15 to end the half down by 10 (62-52).
The second half of the bronze medal match was all Sheridan, limiting their Ancaster based opponent to a minimal 32 points while dropping 59 of their own.
The difference in the game was secondary scoring as the Bruins’ bench outscored Redeemer’s secondary unit 44-28. The Brampton based program also won the battle of the boards, outrebounding the Royals 48 to 38.
“We came out today and executed our game plan,” said Bruins’ third year guard Nick Campbell (Brampton, Ont.). “We like to get a lot of shots up, and by the grace of God, they were going in.” Sheridan’s offence was firing on all cylinders Saturday night, with four players finishing with 18 or more points. Sheridan’s Nick Campbell was awarded the player of the game posting 18 points and 6 rebounds on 25 minutes of floor time.
Pacing the Royals’ offence was 5th year guard Rayvon Higdon (Rochester, New York), finishing with a game high 25 points and 11 rebounds. Royals’ 2nd year guard, and west division defensive player of the year, Foster Brown (Stoney Creek, Ont.) was named the program’s player of the game after posting 10 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists in the losing effort.
The two programs will look to build on this year’s overall performances when they open their 2018-19 regular seasons in October.
