Blessed Sacrament Takes #1 Spot At U19 London Ramblers Easter Shootout

NPH TOP PERFORMERS

Blessed Sacrament

Collin Corrigan – 8pts, 8 rbs

London 

George Johnson – 15 pts

LONDON, ON–After defeating other opponents fairly easy, the Blessed Sacrament Yellow Jackets and the home team London Ramblers went neck and neck in the final game of the London Ramblers Easter Shootout. Neither team was able to get a double digit lead until the end of the third quarter, however the Yellow Jackets were in control throughout and decided on the pace of the game. Despite a valiant effort by Rambler, George Johnson to put his team within three with minutes to play, the Ramblers would go down in a 59-54 loss, giving Blessed Sacrament it’s first tournament championship in the 2012 OBA season.

Both teams came out with a strong defensive instensity matching up in a man and leaving no room for easy baskets. This was confirmed by a 11-9 lead for the Jackets to end the first quarter. The following quarter was much of the same as they continued with defensive pressure and went basket for basket.

This Blessed Sacrament team, coached by Manny Furtado and Jeff Joseph are looking to improve upon “Spacing, we’re a call screen team,” as Furtado mentions. He continues, “we like to create mismatches and get guys rolling to the hoop. Once we get a little bit familiarized with ourselves by being in tournament games like this we’ll get together and understand where guys need to be and when.”

The team has been together for just three weeks and look like the right elements are mixing in their chemistry.

Coming into the second half the Jackets wanted to put this game to rest but Johnson had something to say about that. He ripped down a defensive rebound and zipped down the court, giving defenders his back side play after play.

On the other end there was production from the whole roster of the Jackets but especially by a select few that had a major impact on the teams success over the past few days. Collin Corrigan, Abednego Lufile, Caleb Agada and David McCulloch all played to their strengths and in turn this minimized turnovers for the team and got everyone involved.

The Ramblers kept it a game until the final seconds but Agada would ice it with two free throws giving his team a four point lead.