By By SCOTT NOVAK / Niles Daily Star
NILES – A 29-point third quarter spurred the Niles junior varsity boys' basketball team to the championship of the 2007 Holiday Classic Friday afternoon.
The Vikings defeated World Embassy Christian Academy of Benton Harbor 71-54 to claim the title.
The consolation game between Brandywine and Lake Michigan Catholic was canceled due to a mix up in the starting time.
After having scouted World Embassy on Thursday afternoon, Niles coach Ivery Cross noticed that the team did not get back in transition very well.
The Vikings were able to take advantage of that by releasing a player once the shot went up.
As a result, Aaron Davis and Javier Smith were able to combine for 36 points.
Davis led all scorers with 19 points, while Smith finished with 17. Niles also got 10 points from Mitchell Peterek and Cameron Sly.
Shawn Holland chipped in with eight points.
Robert Williams led World Embassy with 18 points.
"I felt we played pretty good tonight" Cross said. "I thought we did a pretty good job defensively. We knew they weren't very good getting back on defense, so we had planned to leak a kid out and that kind of changed the game in the third quarter.
"We came out flat the first two minutes. Then we got after it. The kids started leaking out and we got some easy buckets and it changed the momentum of the game. We scored 29 points in the third quarter and anytime you do that, you will always have a chance to win," he added.
The Vikings will now take the rest of the holiday break off before returning to action on Tuesday, Jan. 8 when it travels to South Bend, Ind. to take on Riley in a non-conference contest.