Griffins extend streak with Subway tourney win

BY JOHN DECOSTE

The Advertiser

NovaNewsNow.com

To say it has been a while since the Horton D-1 boys’ basketball team has tasted defeat would be an understatement.

Horton’s 77-57 win over Halifax Grammar School in the final of the Subway Holiday Classic Dec. 29 was the 43rd in a row for the Griffins, who haven’t lost for an entire year, since Dec. 29, 2006.

The tournament morphed into a five-team round robin affair after C.P. Allen, Sackville and Cole Harbour cancelled out Thursday morning due to forecast poor weather.

Riverview N.B., North Nova, Bridgewater and Halifax Grammar all braved the wintry blasts to join the host Griffins in what turned out to be a surprisingly competitive tournament.

In the final, Halifax Grammar erased an early Horton advantage to lead the Griffins 33-31 at halftime.

However, Horton used a 24-7 third quarter to regain the lead for good and ended up winning by 20, led by 26 points from tournament MVP Ellis Ffrench, 18 from Pat Riley and 16 (all in the second half) from Jeremy Dunn.

Noel Jones led Grammar with 24 points and Matt Johnson had 14.

Seniors did the damage

In their opener Thursday evening, the Griffins defeated the Bridgewater Vikings (a replacement for Citadel High, who cancelled out in early December) by a 98-71 score.

As has been the case in most of their games this season, Horton’s three Grade 12 seniors did the bulk of the scoring: Ffrench finished with 34 points, Dunn with 24 and Pat Riley with 18.

Zack Wamboldt (four three-pointers), Dylan Tufford and Tim Coote each had 14 for Bridgewater.

In their second game against Riverview, N.B., the Griffins led by just one point after one quarter, but won the second 34-7 to take control en route to a 94-53 win.

Dunn led all scorers with 32 points. Pat Riley had 24 and Ffrench 22. Ryan McCluskey had 15 and Alex MacLeod 14 for Riverview.

Horton’s third round robin game was against Halifax Grammar. The Halifax school again got off to a solid start, leading 17-16 after one quarter.

The Griffins, though, won the second quarter 27-10 and were victorious 79-54. Ffrench (21 points), Pat Riley (20 points), Dunn and Sage Tanner (13 points each) all reached double figures.

Matt Johnson with 19 points, Adam Ross with 12 and Noel Jones with 11 managed double figures for Grammar.

Wrapped up top spot

In their final round robin match, the Griffins wrapped up top spot overall and earned a berth in the final with an 89-66 win over North Nova.

Horton started strong, leading 40-17 after one quarter and 55-32 at halftime, and cruised to the win.

Ffrench finished with 32 points. Pat Riley (14 points), Dunn (11 points) and Neal McGill (10 points) also reached double figures. Calen Kenny and Bryan Campbell had 11 apiece and Darrell Bowden 10 for North Nova.

The game was stopped in the first quarter, at which point Ffrench was presented with the game ball for scoring the 2,000th point of his Horton career.

In the third-place game, Riverview came back from a 42-29 halftime deficit to nip North Nova 73-72. Grammar ended up at 3-2, Riverview and North Nova at 2-3 and Bridgewater 1-3.

Chosen as second-team all-stars were Alex MacLeod and Anthony Sears of Riverview, Chase Bowden and Darrell Bowden of North Nova and Adam Ross of Grammar.

First-team all-stars, in addition to Ffrench, were Matt Johnson and Noel Jones of Grammar and Horton’s Pat Riley and Jeremy Dunn.

Dunn was the top defensive player, Pat Riley the top rebounder and Dylan Tufford of Bridgewater earned the Hustle Award.