Eastern Commerce wins quad-A - again

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If news, by definition, is something out of the ordinary then Eastern Commerce Collegiate winning the Toronto District School Board senior boys hoops title 59-39 over Oakwood Collegiate on Thursday, Feb. 21 is definitely not news.

After all, it's their fifth quad-A city title in six years.

And the local dynasty, which is located just south of Danforth and Donlands avenues, is much more than a big fish in a small pond.

They are a big fish in a big pond, meaning their record at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Association (OFSAA) hoops championships - the furthest level they compete at - is even more impressive with four OFSAA gold and one OFSAA silver (last season) in the last six years.

Scoring was well spread out in Thursday's city final with Keaton Cole and Tyler Murray each contributing 13 points.

Kenneth Buchanan had 14 points for Oakwood.

Cole and Murray along with teammate Alex Hill have already committed to scholarships for U.S. universities for next year.

For the second year in a row, Eastern Commerce's path to the city public board finals included a semifinal win over rival West Hill of Scarborough (73-57) earlier in the week, which still has to be sweet given that two years ago it was West Hill that gave Eastern Commerce its lone blemish in city playoffs, over the last seven years.

Oakwood won its semifinal 69-41 over Etobicoke Collegiate.

While Eastern Commerce has wrapped up the Toronto public board's top spot to OFSAA, the second spot is still up for grabs.

It will be fought for by Oakwood and West Hill on Monday, Feb. 24 at 2 p.m. at West Toronto Collegiate.

It's a bit complicated but basically in the TDSB's playoff system the loser of the championship game doesn't get a free ride, but has to play the "other" semifinal loser. In this case, Oakwood defeated Etobicoke in the semifinal so now in the "backdoor game" has to beat West Hill to qualify for OFSAA.

Eastern Commerce and the winner of Monday's Oakwood and West Hill game won't have to travel far to OFSAA for this year's championships. In fact, they won't have to travel at all, as the quad-A Ontario championship is being hosted right here in Toronto by the Toronto District Catholic league with the finals set for York University.

There's no doubt that the high school playoff system can be convoluted. In a nutshell, there are also OFSAA championships at three other levels, triple-A, double-A and single-A. It all has to do with school size: smaller schools can play up a level; but bigger schools can't play down.

And the Toronto public board also held championships at these levels on Thursday.

TRIPLE A

Central Commerce Collegiate won the triple-A championship 60-51 over Etobicoke's Martingrove Collegiate to lock up the city board's top spot to triple-A OFSAA, which is being held this year in Paris, Ontario.

Darnell Walters had a game-high 29 points for Central while Matthew Wright had 15 points for Martingrove.

The teams advanced to the championship with semifinal wins earlier in the week, Central Commerce over Scarborough's Sir Wilfrid Laurier Collegiate 67-41; Martingrove over Emery Collegiate 83-82.

The Toronto board also gets to send two teams to triple-A OFSAA, thus requiring a "backdoor" game which will be played on Monday, at 12:30 p.m. at West Toronto Collegiate, between Martingrove Collegiate and the "other" semifinal loser Laurier.

DOUBLE-A

Scarborough's Sir Robert Borden Business Technical Institue won the Toronto public board city double-A championship game 66-65 over Vaughan Road Academy to advance to the double-A OFSAA championships in Oshawa.

Ajahmo Clarke had a game high 31 points for Sir Robert Borden while Ibraham James led Vaughan Road with 28 points.

SINGLE A

West Toronto Collegiate won the Toronto public board single-A championshjip game 75-53 over Nelson A. Boylen Collegiate to advance to the single-A OFSAA championships in Port Hope.

Top scorer for West Toronto was Remington Dixon with 35 points while Andrew Stewart with 15 points replied for Boylen.

JUNIOR

The Toronto public board's junior championship game was also held on Thursday and won by Sir Robert Borden Business Institute 79-45 over Newtonbrook of North York.

Top scorer for Borden was Joseph Wani with 35 points and Andi Hasaj for Newtonbrook with 24 points.

The teams advanced to the finals with semifinal wins earlier in the week, Sir Robert Borden 51-48 over Oakwood; Newtonbrook 58-53 over Weston.