KW Lightning Win U16 Ontario Cup

On April 28, 2013 the KW
Lighting defeated Scarborough Blues-Hill by a score of 47-35 to
claim the U16 Division 1 Ontario Cup. With the win, the Lightning
claimed the top prize in Ontario rep basketball, ringing off 5
consecutive wins in the tournament, resulting in them earning the
Gold Medal. Leading up to the Finals showdown, it was apparent that
the depth of the Lightning team that hails from the
Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario area, would be matched up against the
long range shooting prowess of the team from Scarborough, ON, last
year’s U15 champs. The deep bench of the KW team proved time and
time again that it may not be how well a team starts off a game,
but it is about how they finish. The deep bench of the KW team
proved time and time again that it may not be how well a team
starts off a game, but it is about how they finish. In the games
leading up to the Gold Medal game, Lightning Head Coach Craig
Nickel treated each game as a marathon and not a sprint. The
strategy he employed used the later portions of their games to pull
away from their opponents. The Finals were no different as Nickel’s
squad came out of the locker room at Halftime, with the game
knotted at 22. But, by the time the Third Quarter was done, they
led by 5. They further padded their lead in the Fourth, outscoring
the Blues 13-6 en route to the 47-35 win. In the Bronze Medal game,
a couple of up start U15 teams made their mark on the U16 age
category. In the battle for Third place, Transway of Hamilton, ON
held off a late scare from Oakville Vytis, for a 45-40 win. A late
3-pointer from Transway’s Taylor Randall with about a minute left
in the final frame was the deciding factor between these two teams
that because of their age, will almost automatically be looked at
as front runners for next year’s crown. To emphasize the amount of
parity that existed within the U16 Division throughout the season
and again in this final tournament the, Lightning entered the
tournament as the fourth seed Oakville Vytis the fifth, the Blues
were the sixth seed and Transway was ranked seventh.