By: Zach Worden
Scarborough — Covaun Armstrong scored 27 points, grabbed six rebounds and passed out six assists as the Centennial Colts took their home opener with an 89-84 win over the Durham Lords in Saturday OCAA men’s basketball action.
Armstrong and the Colts (1-1) held off a Durham (1-1) comeback effort after leading by 16 at the half. The second-year guard scored nine points in the fourth quarter, making four of his five shots to help Centennial put the game away.
“We got the defensive stops and we converted on offense,” Armstrong said postgame.
Centennial’s new head coach Michael Jackman also came away with his first career OCAA victory.
“It [means] a lot. Being from Scarborough it’s huge,” he said. “I really wanted to create a different culture and atmosphere amongst our athletes.”
The Colts broke out to an early lead in the game behind strong first-quarter play from Tayeshaun Crawford and Husam Shallo who scored eight points apiece. Crawford mixed in three steals to help his squad break out to a 25-17 lead after the opening 10 minutes.
The second quarter saw more dominance from the hometown squad. The Colts made 50 per cent of their threes while holding Durham to just 29.4 per cent shooting from the field, taking control of the game heading into halftime.
The Lords found their footing out of the break at half. Despite 13 combined points from Armstrong and Crawford, Durham cut into its deficit, outsourcing Centennial 26-18 in the third.
The fourth quarter was both teams’ highest-scoring frame of the night. Scarborough’s Angelo Sarsonas led the comeback effort for the Lords with 16 points of his own in the final 10 minutes — including three made threes and a leaning shot from just inside the three-point line in the final moments to keep the game close when it looked out of reach.
Despite the strong second-half push from Durham, Centennial got help from all across its roster in securing the win.
Armstrong led the way in the fourth, but Shallo, Crawford and Ambrosio Ndongala chipped in four points each. Ndongala put an exclamation mark on the game with a huge slam to put Centennial up by six with less than 20 seconds remaining.
Jacob Macalalad scored five of his 13 points of the game in the quarter as well, making some big shots down the stretch as the Colts held off the Lords.