By Jason Pike
RUSHOON, NL – The 2025 Senior Boys 1A Varsity Boys Basketball qualifiers were hosted in Christ the King Academy Crusaders in Rushoon this year. It comprised of teams from St Joseph’s All Grade Timberwolves in Terrenceville, Christ the King Academy Crusaders, St Lawrence Academy Blues, St Lawrence and St Joseph Academy Jaguars, Lamaline.
The first game that took place was between St Joseph’s Academy Jaguars and the St Lawrence Academy Blues in Rushoon.
St Lawrence Academy and the St Joseph’s Academy were relatively close in the first quarter but as the game progressed it ended up in being a very lopsided victory for the St Joseph’s Academy Jaguars beating the Blues by some 40 points.
Next up was the host team, Christ the King Academy Crusaders versus St Joseph’s All Grades of Terrenceville. For a significantly smaller school with limited ability play any exhibition games, being kind of isolated, having to drive 1 hour in either direction at least to play exhibition games. the St Joseph’s All Grade team were formidable and kept it close with host Christ the King Academy Crusaders.
Next up was the St Lawrence Academy Blue versus Christ the King Academy Crusaders. This was a rematch from just a week earlier in the championship of the Quarry Canway Memorial Tournament hosted at the same school in which the host Crusaders handled the Blues winning the tournament with ease in the final. But today was a different day and the Blues showed up in full force and not reminiscent of the losing effort they had just one week prior. At the end of the game the Blues showed that the Crusaders were little competition for them on this day as they came off victorious.
Next was that battle of the St. Joseph’s teams.
St Joseph’s Academy Jaguars of Lamaline versus the St Joseph’s All Grade of Terrenceville which in reality was no battle at all. Although St Joseph’s All Grade has some true potential for their limited gym space and exhibition potential they play respectable basketball and really had some of the grassroots of the game down pat.
There really is some true potential with that squad but against the St Joseph’s Academy Jaguars, who are hosting the upcoming SSNL Senior 1A boys provincial basketball championship, they weren’t much of a match.
The Jaguars came out flying and held a commanding lead for the entire game and never took their foot off the throttle winning the game and securing another victory one step closer to the championship.
The fifth match was the Christ the King Academy Crusaders playing the St Joseph’s Academy Jaguars who played back-to-back contests going into this game. But their Fitness prevailed on the court as the Jags speed allowed them to control the flow of the game and winning by a 20-point deficit by final buzzer.
Game 6 was St Lawrence Academy Blues versus St Joseph’s All Grade of Terrenceville. This game meant little in the standings as St Lawrence had already pretty much secured a birth in the final.
Once again you had a very mismatched game here with the much bigger, much more experienced St Lawrence Academy Blues dominated over St Joseph’s All Grade in fine fashion beating them by 20 plus points by the final whistle.
As there were only four teams in this regional qualifier the top two teams played off for the regional Banner. This ultimately made for a rematch from the first game of the tournament between St Lawrence Academy blues and St Joseph’s Academy Jaguars.
There wasn’t a whole lot of difference in this game play or the end result in the championship game.
The Jaguars, who during the St Patrick’s Day weekend will host the provincial championships, played much like the Provincial Championship contenders that they are. Playing much of their bench throughout the game we seen much improvement from the Jaguars 6th 7th and 8th men which will ultimately help them as the season progresses providing a deeper bench.
At the end of the day the Jaguars handled the Blues in another 20-point deficit capturing the Regional Championship Banner.
