LSSAA Basketball Finals
by Kyle MacKinnon

February 21, 2009

It is a story book ended to what started off as a tumultuous relationship. The St. Clair Colts defeat the St. Christopher's Cyclones in the LSSAA finals last night. But it is the story of a player and a coach that stood out.

As Jimmy Purves raised the MVP trophy as the games most valuable player (after scoring 23 points, 16 of them in the second half), Colts head coach Peter Kaija smiled.
"You know its a funny story," Kaija said.

"I threw him off the team last year. We had some disagreements and I felt it would be better for the team if he wasn't there."

Kaija looked over at his forward that played an incredible game.  "But he came back this year and worked really hard. He was a model citizen and player. He was a leader."

Purves stifled a very good Cyclones defence, leading his team to the victory.  "We played our game," Purves said.

"I think this was our best game. Winning the MVP was pretty sweet, but now we got to watch some game tape and get ready for next week."

And next week Coach Kaija hopes that Purves comes to him and says the same thing he did before playing St. Chris.

"He came to me before the game and said, 'Don't worry I am going to hit everything.' And he did."
Next week the Colts will host Chatham-Kent on Wednesday. Time is to be announced, but Kiaja said it would likely be a 7 p.m. start.

As for the Cyclone's, they had the home court advantage at St. Christopher. There wasn't an empty spot to stand or sit. But they still came up on the short end of all three championship games.

Aside from losing to the Colts in the senior game, the Cyclones lost to the in the junior game 57-45 to Northern and in the midget finals 37-31 to Northern as well.

In the senior game Eric McDonald led the way with 19 points. The Cyclones actually led 11-8 after the first quarter but only scored 11 points in the following two-quarters to fall behind 22-42 going into the third.

Despite a late charge, the Colts defence was to strong for any comeback on this night.

In the midget game, Hayden Auterhoff scored 11 points in a winning effort for Northern.
Only four St. Chris players registered a point in the game.

Aaron Quin had 14 in a losing effort and Mike Hummell added 12 before fouling out.

In the junior game Carter Winberg scored an amazing 26 points in only three quarters to lead the Vikings to the championship win.

Martin Popiel was the Cyclones leading scorer.

SWOSSA semi-final games go next week in Chatham-Kent and Lambton.

Look to Sarniasports.com for full coverage of your local team.