Two important games are on the docket Tuesday when the high school senior boys basketball season begins its second session.
At Holy Cross Secondary School, the Frontenac Falcons, who share the league lead at 4-0, will visit the Holy Cross Crusaders, also undefeated at 2-0, in a game that will pit two teams of vastly different composition. The Crusaders are undoubtedly the tallest team in the county, collectively, and they should dominate the glass at both ends of the floor, but it remains to be seen whether they can contend with the speed and quickness traditionally displayed by the Falcons.
For Holy Cross, the game begins a torrid stretch leading to the second break in the schedule at the end of the month, when scholastic sports again are suspended, for end-of-semester exams. After playing just twice before the Christmas break, the Crusaders face a slate of six games in the next 17 days.
Game time Tuesday is 5 o’clock.
For Frontenac, the game is the first in the Falcons’ most challenging week of the regular year. On Thursday, they’ll host the Kingston Blues, the other team to emerge from the pre-Christmas portion of the schedule with a 4-0 record.
Tuesday’s other pivotal game will be played at Queen Elizabeth Collegiate, where the Raiders will host the Granite Ridge Gryphons in a clash of the Kingston Area Secondary Schools Athletic Association’s two single-A teams at 5:30.
The Raiders, 1-2, have an edge over the winless Gryphons going into the game but the outcome of Tuesday’s contest will do much to determine who will represent KASSAA at the eastern Ontario championship in February, seeking a berth in the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations tournament in March.
Tuesday’s other season-resuming contest will be played at La Salle, where the Black Knights, 0-4, will host the Sydenham Golden Eagles, 2-2.
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The senior girls volleyball season resumes on six fronts Tuesday, and it doesn’t appear much is likely to happen this week to alleviate the logjam at the top of the standings, where four teams are within sight of league-leading Sydenham.
The Golden Eagles completed the pre-Christmas portion of the schedule with an unblemished 5-0 record, one win better than the similarly undefeated Regiopolis Notre Dame Panthers and Frontenac, both 4-0 going into play this week. Those teams hold a slim advantage over the Kingston Blues, 4-1 before Christmas, and Holy Cross, 3-1.
Sydenham, by the way, is full value for its perch atop the standings, having handed both KC and Holy Cross their only defeats so far. The Golden Eagles resume play with matches against a pair of sub-.500 teams this week, at home versus La Salle Tuesday and at Napanee on Thursday.
The Falcons face a tough slog, playing both Holy Cross and KC, while Regi gets back into it with matches against KASSAA’s two smallest schools, winless Mille-Iles Tuesday and Marie-Rivier, 2-3, on Thursday.