Double-time overtime pays off in CASS Knights junior hoops WOSSAA AA gold

CASS Knight Easton Freeman (left) takes care of the ball during the TVRA Southeast championship game. (Jeff Tribe Photo)

Jeff Tribe, Echo Correspondent

The Woodstock College Avenue junior basketball Knights worked double-time overtime on the way to a Western Ontario Secondary Schools Athletic Association (WOSSAA) AA championship victory on Feb. 25 at Stratford St. Mike’s.

“That’s something they’ll have forever,” said coach Scott Awde. “No one can take it away.”

The Knights secured their WOSSAA AA championship with a 57-39 win over the St. Thomas Parkside Colts, which, according to Awde, was closer than the final 18-point margin.

“It never felt safe,” said Awde. “In junior boys basketball, you don’t feel comfortable until you get pretty close to the end.”

The Knights bench boss may have been flashing back to his squad’s narrow 56-54 overtime victory over the same Colts in the Thames Valley Regional Athletics (TVRA) AA Southeast title game two days earlier at CASS.

The Knights had come out strong in the first quarter, dominating play at both ends of the court. However, their struggles to finish offensively saw them trailing 10-9 after the opening eight minutes and 29-22 at the half against a Parkside team that sank four three-pointers in the second period. CASS headed into the fourth quarter down by six. In those final eight minutes, captain Greyson Padfield scored eight of his team’s 16 points, four-for-four from the free throw line, as the Knights pulled back to even (49-49) at the final buzzer.

In the extra four-minute period, Lukas Mickevicius went four-for-four from the free throw line, and Kameron Roos added three points to offensively fuel a tight win.

On the game, Padfield had 18 points for the Knights, Mickevicius added 15, Roos 12, Easton Freeman seven, Dylan Hircsu one field goal and Nathan Ugar one free throw.

College Avenue entered the WOSSAA draw as the top TVRA Southeast seed, opening the four-team affair against London Westminster Wildcats. Once again, the Knights would be pushed to the limit, playing an additional four minutes of overtime before downing the Wildcats 60-53.

“It was our defensive effort that made the difference,” said Awde.

The Knights have two dominant big men (Padfield and Mickevicius) and collectively scored a lot of points in a lot of games during the season the coach continued. But when push came to shove with their season on the line, he could also rely on a gritty effort in his team’s side of the court.

“In those games you need seven or eight guys to step up defensively and get it done, to get stops. Especially in overtime, you need to get stops.”

The game was high-energy and high intensity Awde added, with technical fouls assessed to each team and one fan ejected.

“It’s heated, right?”

The Knights finished their regular TVRA Southeast season with an 8-0 record, 23-3 overall through their 2025/26 campaign. Awde cited resilience as a team strength, noting CASS had trailed at halftime in a number of their outings.

“They don’t quit,” he credited of a squad which went 4-0 in the post-season with two OT thrillers. "They accomplished that and will have it forever.”

Senior WOSSAA AA

The Woodstock CI Red Devils finished off a four-year run under coach Eric Molinaro with a WOSSAA medal, its lustre slightly diminished by a bronze rather than golden hue.

“It would have been better if it were gold,” he said following an 87-66 victory over the host Listowel Lightning on Feb. 25, arguably the most emotional basketball game of his coaching career.

This season’s run included a 55-41 TVRA Southeast senior boys championship victory over the St. Thomas St. Joe’s Rams. Officially, the win gave the Red Devils the top TVRA seed heading into the WOSSAA AA draw, but strategically, that meant opening against a powerful London Regina Mundi Titans squad.

“It was in our best interests to tank,” said Molinaro. “In hindsight, it may have been a mistake, but it’s not in me as a coach, and as a person to model for players and students, that’s a way to live. We’re happy with the TVRA Southeast championship but not pleased with WOSSAA bronze.”

The Red Devils' coaching staff had scouted the Titans and formulated a game plan that kept them within a basket at halftime.

“But our defence needed to be better in the second half,” said Molinaro of an eventual 81-65 loss. “We just didn’t execute the whole gameplan to hang in there with them.”

St. Joe’s downed the Lightning 73-49 in their semi-final, going on to take WOSSAA AA gold with an 85-77 overtime win over RMC in the final.

“It’s our strong belief we did St. Joe’s a favour by tiring them out in the semis,” said Molinaro.

The tournament’s emotional content included disappointment in the fact the Red Devils were playing for pride rather than the hoped-for AA provincial tournament berth also up for grabs in the gold medal game. Molinaro had known many of the players, including son Zack, well before they reached high school. He thoroughly enjoyed a shared journey, arguably highlighted by the previous season’s Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations A silver medal performance.

“It wasn’t because we lost, it was because it was over,” Molinaro concluded.