Tense game results in banner win for Raiders

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This article was published 31/03/2015 (4032 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It came down to a single free throw to keep the Oak Park Raiders in the championship game.
At the Duckworth Centre on March 23, the Oak Park Raiders met the St. Paul’s Crusaders for the varsity boys provincial AAAA basketball championship.

Leading up to the final, St. Paul’s had beaten the Kildonan East Reivers 70-62. Oak Park, meanwhile, defeated the Garden City Fighting Gophers the same way they did in the Wesmen Classic to lock down their spot in the final.

St. Paul’s came out strong in the first half of the final game and Oak Park coach Jon Lundgren admits he was a little bit surprised by how well they shot the ball in the first two quarters. Oak Park was 10 points behind at the half but the players refused to give up their year-long goal so easily.

“In both first halves of the semifinal and the final game we just didn’t really have our heads on straight and weren’t the team that we normally are,” senior Oak Park power forward Will Kohler said. “In the third quarter we all just decided we didn’t want to go out with a loss, we didn’t want to regret anything and all stepped up.”

Kohler in particular brought some energy back to the Oak Park squad. He hit a three-pointer in the fourth quarter with only 20 seconds left on the clock to put them within one. With seven seconds left in the game, Kohler found himself on the free throw line with his whole team depending on him. He missed his first shot but sunk the second to carry Oak Park into overtime.

 “No one could have predicted what happened in that fourth quarter,” Kohler said.

Oak Park came out on top in overtime with an impossibly close victory, 68-67. Kohler, who was named a tournament all-star, fractured the growth plate in his wrist just before playoffs.  He says he relied on “a decent amount” of Advil to be able to play.

Lundgren said Nic Zorcic also played exceptionally well in the final, especially in the first half.William Sesay again played his part and won the player’s choice award and was named tournament MVP.William Sesay again played his part and won the player’s choice award along with tournament MVP.

While Lundgren won a provincial championship before in 2010, he watched this particular group of guys come up together since junior high school and is just happy they were able to end their high school careers on a positive note.

“I’ll miss them a lot, it’s only the day after and I already miss seeing them in the gym trying to get better,” Lundgren said. “I think they were the most dedicated team I’ve ever coached.”

Lundgren is looking forward to following many of his former player’s careers as they go on to play university and college basketball as there were 11 senior students on the Oak Park team this season.