Jason Teakle
BRANT NEWS

They did it again.

For a third consecutive year, the North Park Collegiate Trojans senior boys basketball team has claimed the Brant County high school championship.

The Trojans swept the St. John’s College Green Eagles in a best-of-three series with a Game 2 win at Brantford Collegiate Institute on Thursday night.

The Trojans beat the Green Eagles 50-36 after securing a 10-point lead early in the game and maintaining the upper hand throughout, despite a scoring surge by SJC in the third quarter.

NPC’s top-scorer of the game, Marcus Hamilton, led his team to victory by putting away 18 points. Hamilton said defence was key to the Trojans’ victory.

“We had great team defence tonight and we moved the ball extremely well,” Hamilton said. “It feels great to win because we defeated SJC last year, as well.”

NPC head coach Todd Andrew said his team’s strong start to the game led to the win.

“We had another great start tonight,” Andrew said. “We sustained another late run from them. This is our third-straight undefeated championship in the city.”

NPC has gone 39-0 in the regular season and playoffs for the past three Brant County seasons.

Green Eagle J.P. Yurcich said his team was outplayed during the first half of the game.

“Our start killed us,” Yurcich said. “We can’t spot them leads and expect to come back. We gave them way too many opportunities.”

Trojan Jon Dulmage said NPC played an aggressive game.

“We pushed them around,” Dulmage said. “We just got in their faces and outplayed them all over the court. This is my first championship win with the team and it feels great.

“We did a lot of hustling and practicing the little things like not turning over the ball and making good, crisp passes.”

Trojan Marcus Jones, who played Thursday despite receiving four staples in his scalp after taking a knee to the head during Game 1 of the series on Tuesday, said NPC succeeded on the rebound.

“We rebounded the ball well tonight,” Jones said. “We weathered the storm in the third quarter when they started to make a run.

“It feels good to keep the streak going. Our coach said after the game tonight that one (championship win) is good. At two, people start looking at you. But, with three, you will be remembered.”

NPC’s Nick Minutillo said the win was the result of a team effort.

“To hold a team like SJC to that many points, it is great for our confidence and it’s because of our defence,” Minutillo said. “We were getting pumped up as a team and it was great to have the energy we had.”

SJC head coach Nick Esposito noted that the Green Eagles were outshot in the first half, but stepped it up in the third quarter of play.

“We got down early and we clawed our way back, but by that time we ran out of gas,” Esposito said. “We struggled to keep them off the offensive glass.

“The second half was a total turnaround from the first for us. They worked really hard and didn’t quit. That is all we can ask of them.”

SJC’s junior boys basketball team beat NPC 70-63 at BCI earlier Thursday night to push that series to a third and deciding game.