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ODSS Bears junior B-Ball team storming through the season

December 20, 2019   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

The Orangeville District Secondary School Bears junior basketball team are leading the District 4 standings and are undefeated after six games.

The Bears are at the top of the eight team line-up in this year’s entries of District 4 teams.

After a 68 – 51 home court win over Our Lady of Lourdes on Tuesday, December 10, the Bears were back on the court two days later.

In their second game of the week the Bears left the court with a 62 – 44 win over Guelph Collegiate Vocation Institute.

The juniors have scored 402 points this season while allowing 289 against.

It’s not like the Bears are winning over unskilled teams. Most of their games have been pretty close. There’s a lot of talent in District 4 teams this year and that is reflected in the scores.

The Bears have been able to focus their skills on getting the points and staying ahead.

“We have a really strong group of returning players now in grade 10,” said Bears coach Matthew Burnside.” Many of them played together growing up with Orangeville Hawks and a few other clubs. We are also very fortunate to have two exceptional grade 9’s this year – Ashton McQuaig and Ewan Steele. Both of them bring an elite level of talent and allow us to put a lot of pressure on other teams – offensively and defensively.”

The Bears are playing with the goal of winning a championship this season and seem to be on the right track.

“Everyone seems to be finding their role and the team seems to be working well together,” coach Burnside said. “We have put ourselves in a great position midway through the year to compete for a District 10 

championship and a spot at CWOSSA. Our biggest challenge right now is our health. We just had one start return tonight (Dec. 12) after a bad ankle sprain and Ewan Steele, who was playing like the league MVP went down last week with an ankle injury. Doctors are saying (he will be out for) six to eight weeks which means he will hopefully be back for the playoffs.”

The Bears got some additional play during a weekend tournament in Guelph.

The ODDS juniors were back on home court on Tuesday, December 17, with results not available at press time.

The Bears will return to home court in the new year when they will host Bishop Macdonell on Tuesday, January 7.

Game time is 4:00 p.m.

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