Triple-A championship was a close-fought affair

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Central Commerce AAA boys basketball team won the city championship, securing a spot at OFSAA.

It was a close, exciting game, said Central coach Larry Laughlin.

Commerce had something to prove.

In 2005 Commerce played a tight game at the AA championship.

"We lost by one point with one second left," he said. "They scored with one second left. We lost 43 to 42. That's a bit of devastation that I haven't gotten over."

This year's game didn't go down that way.

Central had a nine point lead, 44-35 in the third quarter when Martingrove made a run to get back in it, Laughlin said.

"We made a big turnover," he said, adding the ball went over his player's head and Martingrove got it and scored.

"We went straight back down the court, pushed it," he said. "Our guy was open in the baseline corner and he hit the three and then we got a turnover and a dunk and that was the game. We came through when we needed to come through."

Laughlin said his team played a deeper game, bringing more guys off the bench, and tried to make it an up tempo game.

"That allowed Darnell (Walters) to get to the basket a lot more easily in the second half," he said. "That's one of our strengths is our transition game."

Walters, a guard, was the top scorer for Commerce with 29 points.

"He's the cornerstone of the franchise," Laughlin said.

This is the same team as last year basically, he said. "They showed a lot of experience and maturity (at this year's championship game)," Laughlin said. "Last year we were in the two-way final and I think our inexperience showed up a lot last year. There was a lot of expectations for this year's performance."

By ranking, Central Commerce wasn't the favourite going into the game.

Martingrove coach Shawn Gray said it was close game.

"We were actually down two points with a minute and a half left and then everything went to hell," Gray said.

The loss is attributed an old cliche, he said.

"Defence and rebounds wins championships and that's what happened to us," he said. "We did not rebound the ball well and they dominated the boards on us."

Gray said his team played well.

Matthew Wright, shooting guard led Martingrove in scoring with 16 points in the championship game.

"The scoreboard will show that we lost but I thought we out-played them in every aspect expect for rebounding and they dominated the boards on us," he said.

"They had too many chances to have possession and score."

Gray said this was Martingrove's first shot at heading to OFSAA in very, very long time.

"We were the underdogs," he said.

Martingrove will play a "back door" game on Monday which may still win them a spot at the OFSAA triple-A championships.

"I got a bunch of angry children," Gray said. "I feel sorry for the other team. I hope they still have that fire in there."

He said it would have been nice to win the city championship.

"I'm really proud of the guys," he said. "They really went after it this year and went a long way."