RYAN PAULSEN
rpaulsen@thedailyobserver.ca
It was a monumental weekend of high school basketball that saw 38 teams from schools in Ontario and Quebec take to the court, and it all came down to two teams vying for the championship title of the 2012 Falcon Classic on Saturday evening.
Unfortunately for local fans, the only two teams at the top of the undefeated pile going into Saturday night's final were Sun Youth, from Montreal, and Life Christian Academy from Orleans, in the east end of Ottawa.
Despite the early exit of local teams, organizer Pat Childerhose was happy with the tournament.
"I think overall it was a big success," he says. "For the first time we had a junior draw, so that increased the number of teams, and in the end I think the best team won."
That 'best team' turned out to be Life Christian Academy, which took the title after dispatching Sun Youth by a margin of 71-57. All was not lost for Sun Youth, however, who returned to Montreal with the junior championship title in hand.
In order to stay in contention for the championship, teams had to win every game. An early loss would put them in contention for the consolation final, and other losses would lead either to elimination or relegation to the "B" or "D" divisions.
Five Renfrew County teams took part in the annual tournament, with varying levels of success.
Bishop Smith fared the worst, dropping three straight games to St. Paul, Englehart and Mackenzie and sent packing early.
General Panet lost its first two games, first by a 76-43 margin against Lester B. Pearson and then 33-16 against St. Francis Xavier, dropping them down to the "D" bracket, where they made a convincing run to the final, beating St. Lawrence and Tagwi before ultimately losing the final to Ashbury, which had just finished dispatching Mackenzie's team in the division semi-final, 65-35.
Fellowes made it through to the consolation semi-final game before losing a heartbreaker to Haliburton 41-36.
On the other side of the consolation bracket, Renfrew Collegiate Institute were eliminated by Englehart 31-25.
The tournament was held at Fellowes and Bishop Smith high schools, with most of the final games played at Dundonald Hall at CFB Petawawa.
"We were really fortunate to have a facility like Dundonald Hall," says Childerhose. "We got lots of good comments about that facility and it's pretty unique that you can get to see four basketball games under one roof. It was nice to have the wooden floor gym, too. Everyone marvelled at how nice that was."
Although he is the public face of the event, Childerhose is quick to pass along acknowledgments to the huge number of volunteers needed to run a tournament this large, that smoothly.
"I do want to say that it's not just one person, it's a big team. We had a lot of help from the administration at Fellowes, and the phys-ed staff - they were great helping out at the games and at other times as well."
Ryan Paulsen is a Daily Observer multimedia journalist. Follow him on Twitter @PRyanPaulsen.
