The Huntsville senior boys’ basketball team played host to the Muskoka/Parry Sound championships, competing against the Almaguin Highlanders in the final.

The Highlanders had earned their way into the final with a victory over Bracebridge and Muskoka Lakes Secondary School.

The game was a hotly contested affair, as it usually is when these two teams get together.

The Hoyas took a two-point lead into halftime, holding a 23-21 lead. Jarred Hoo broke the game wide open in the third quarter as he hit three consecutive threes, giving the Hoyas a 42-34 lead at the end of three quarters.

Dylan Teakle then took over in the fourth, scoring in points and giving the Hoyas a comfortable 57-39 victory. Teakle led the Hoyas in scoring with 22 points while Hoo had an outstanding game, scoring 20 points and holding the Highlanders’ top scorer, Curtis Lawes, to nine. Jacob Austin-Edsall also scored in double digits with 10.

This game marked the final home game for four Huntsville High School seniors as Hoo, Teakle, Oliver Wolfe and Tyler Rae move on to post-secondary education.

The Hoyas then travelled to Midland to defend their GBSSA crown trying to achieve a “three-peat” and their fifth GBSSA senior boys’ title in six years.

The Hoyas were seeded first at the playdown and had the Twin Lakes Thunderbirds from Orillia as their semifinal opponent.

In the first quarter the game was evenly matched with the Hoyas holding a one-point lead. The Hoyas continued to work hard and expanded their lead to five, 29-24 at the half.

The Hoyas were unable to increase their lead in the third quarter as each team scored 13 points. The Hoyas’ constant full court pressure finally took its toll on the Thunderbirds as the Hoyas outscored the Thunderbirds 21-11 in the fourth quarter to take a hard-earned 63-48 victory.

Hoo had his second consecutive outstanding playoff game scoring 25 points and holding the Thunderbirds’ leading scorer to 11. Teakle and Austin-Edsall were also major contributors with 13 points apiece while Wolfe chipped in six.

Rounding out the scoring were Cooper Schnurr with six, Rae with two and Phil Stevenson with one.

Their semi-final victory earned the Hoyas the right to advance to the championship final for the sixth consecutive year.

The Hoyas’ opponents were the host school, the Midland Marauders.

The Hoyas extended their lead to as many as 17, but the Marauders kept battling back and the second half was a draw as the Hoyas won their third straight GBSSA senior boys’ championship and fifth in the past six years, 58-45.

Hoo led the Hoyas in the first half as Midland tried to keep the ball out of his hands mostly by sending him to the foul line, where he hit 10 consecutive foul shots.

Teakle played a strong game with good defence and 14 points, making a number of clutch shots at critical points in the game. Hoo and Rae ended the game with 12 points each while Austin-Edsall also hit double digits with 11. Other scorers were Wolfe with five and Schnurr with two.

The Hoyas now advance to the 2008 OFSAA playdowns in Paris from March 3 to 5.