Waterloo Prospects Shine Bright in Grade 8 Division of Signature League
With winter firmly gripped over all of southern Ontario, the grade 8 division at Signature league looked to heat up the atmosphere.
Half way through the season and two teams have been able to remain undefeated, while the rest of the team scrap for good playoff position.
Lets start with the game of the weekend that included tons of talent from one of the most profound regions in the Canadian basketball landscape – Waterloo.
UPlay ended up defeated the Waterloo Wildhawks 76-65 behind a monster 27-point performance from Jahsemar Olembe.
Olembe started off rather slowly, but he made his mark on the game with a massive and one dunk that electrified the entire building.
From there, Olemebe started his rain of three point bombs hitting four and scoring 17 points in total in the third quarter.
It was also in that third quarter that Olembe picked up his fifth fouled and was disqualified, leaving the game with UPlay only up 5.
To make matters worse, Kennedy Charles also ended up fouling out early in the fourth quarter, leaving UPlay with a lack of size.
Ahmad Cidi-Jalloh stepped up in the fourth scoring 8 of his 17 points in the Q en route to the victory for UPlay.
Ahmad is an extremely athletic PG who to finishes very well in the lane with good court and rim awareness.
Waterloo had great outings from their usual suspects in Jacob Theodosiou, and Nate Chan.
Theodosiou managed to stay at his league average, scoring 29 points while being extremely efficient from the floor. With his passion and fire, Theodosiou showed his heart outweighs his stature.
Chan did most of his damage in the 2nd half, pouring in 11 of his 19 points. Chan was able to convert on some very tough lay-ups, and three point shots over contested defense.
The Wildhawks also have a very skilled and versatile player in Collin Mulholland. He was able to score 14 points in a variety of way through shooting the three, finishing inside, and getting to the free-throw line.
Halton continued their strong push in the division remaining undefeated with wins against Waterloo and Blessed Sacrament. Coach Brian Lopez has the team running very well using his two units to compliment each other extremely efficiently.
The same can be said for Grassroots Canada who also remained undefeated while using their entire roster very effectively. Despite being without the services of some of their top guys from time to time, Grassroots coach Wilton Hall has his guys clicking on all cylinders.
The Scarborough Blues round out the top tier of competitors in the grade 8 Signature League division. Coach Brad Matsugu has a good mixture of size, and length on the perimeter, along with good lead guard play.
In the middle of the standing the Wildhawks and Mississauga Monarchs are at an even 3-3. Both teams have shown they can compete with the upper echelons of the league.
Blessed Sacrament, Motion Basketball North, Mississauga Magic and the Vaughan Panthers continue to fight for positioning at the latter end of the league.
For all your up to date Signature League information please click here. The grade 7 recap of the signature league will be released Tuesday 19th 2017.
