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Oxford Attack U12 Boys Win Bronze in Hamilton

The U12 boys made Oxford County proud with a bronze medal performance in Hamilton this weekend.

This past weekend our U12 boys battled on the hardwood at the Blessed Sacrament Basketball tournament in Hamilton. Saturday began with a win over Guelph 56-44, followed by a 51-48 hard battled win against the Brantford Hawks. Their final Saturday match-up was their new rival, the Niagara Rangers. This would be their third meeting and the Rangers came out hungry and ready for redemption as they lost their first two games to the Attack team weeks before when the attack won Gold. The Rangers came out of the gate running hard and aggressively took the Attack by surprise with an early 16-4 lead. Our boys tried but just didn’t have enough gas in the tank to catch them. Rangers won 46-31.

Sunday morning the Attack boys were slotted to battle the Cambridge Centaurs #1 and Cambridge won convincingly 55-21. The boys looked tired and wounded. Coach Rob pulled the young men aside and helped them understand the bigger picture and explained the value in effort and energy and never giving up. It didn’t take long for the Attack team to find out that they would be heading into the Bronze medal game to square off with the Niagara Rangers again. The Attack boys came out of the gate energetic and fired up. Attack won the Bronze with a 37-24 victory. Coach Bruce Caughill of the Niagara Rangers was forced to yet again put on the Oxford Attack shirt (for the third time this season) and pose for a picture – a tradition established at a previous tournament.

Bilal Taha showed his leadership this weekend by never giving up and continuing to claw and fight until the clock stopped, no matter what the scoreboard showed. Bilal looked for others, drove and dished to create opportunities for his team. Corbin Duivenvoorde displayed some fine shooting during the weekend and dropped a few three pointers and made his presence known in the paint. His toughness rubbed off on others. Sam Orlowski was a beast in the paint for which his presence was felt by all teams, while he pulled down rebounds and dropped buckets. Jerome N. Kazadi played very hard and led the way in grit and determination while fearlessly driving through traffic to get to the basket and create opportunities. Dev Nirale’s intensity was at its peak as he played with injuries and taped up fingers. Isaiah Pacheco’s and Ethan Chard’s defensive presence helped keep the opposing scorers at bay. Ben Guider’s quick reflexes and speed gave him opportunities for quick buckets on the fast break and disrupted the other teams’ ability to do the same. Diego Camboia’s intense defence and physical presence made the opposition think twice before coming into his neighbourhood. Liam Parolin’s intelligence on the court was on display once again and was only overshadowed by his heart. Liam played all weekend while suffering from an illness. Liam, the team appreciates your heart and grit. Regan Whittman’s defence was greatly missed Sunday as he always provides that defensive threat for the opposition. Get well soon Regan. As always, recovering from injury, Stef Charters kept the team fired up from the bench.

Both I and Coach Mark Parolin are very proud of our team’s ability to bounce back and win a very deserving bronze medal. Keep learning and improving every day, boys. The Ontario Cup is quickly approaching. Stay tuned as we prepare to represent Oxford County at the end of March in Niagara Falls on the Provincial stage.

Story submitted by Coach Rob Duivenvoorde

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