ARTICLE

Omega Basketball Launches 2025/26 Season with Hard-Fought Junior Victory

December 4, 2025 | Rochelle Thomas | Ontario Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church

The regular season of the TDCAA Omega Boys Basketball Season opened on Tuesday, November 25, as both the junior and senior teams took to the court in a doubleheader against the Yeshivat Or Chaim (YOC) Knights at their gym.

Game One

The three-time defending champion, Crawford Omega Senior Boys, aims to defend their title this season with the goal of a four-peat. In front of a very boisterous crowd, they started game one of the doubleheader. Unfortunately, they did not get the start they were looking for. YOC started the game strongly with a 9-3 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Second quarter, Omega fought their way back into the match, pulling within one point, making it 9-8 for the Knights. Unfortunately, that was as close as Crawford would get, as YOC pulled away with strong defence and great offensive pressure. When the buzzer sounded to end the first half, YOC went to the bench leading 19-12.

The Knights kept dominating in the second half, preventing Omega from scoring any points and stopping Crawford from launching any attack. They kept scoring easily, and at the final buzzer, the score was Knights 57, Omega 12.

“First game of the year. More than 60% of our team are brand new people. New guys playing basketball for the first time, but it is a very humbling experience for us,” explained Omega Head Coach Pastor Kelvin Kublall. “Because we’re not going to always win every single one, but we must train and prepare for what’s ahead. So, we’re all going to learn from this game and take some valuable takeaways, and hopefully our guys can be prepared to say, 'Hey, we are undefeated with three years as champions.' But there are going to be teams that will come and play harder against us.”

Game Two

The Junior Omega squad, consisting of grade 9 & 10 boys, took to the court to play game two of the doubleheader against the YOC Knights junior team in their first regular season game.

The Knights in their yellow jerseys and Omega in their dark blue jerseys. The Head Coach of the Crawford team is Durell Coleman.

The YOC team jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the first quarter and held on to that lead throughout the frame. The first quarter ended with the Knights ahead 15-10. Christian Blake of the Omega made all four of his shots from the foul line in the quarter.

In the second quarter, it seemed like YOC was going to pull away; however, Crawford stormed back to tie the game with just over a minute left in the game. Both teams were evenly matched on both sides of the ball. When the buzzer sounded to end the half, YOC led 25-22.

In the second half, the score remained fairly close as both teams fought hard for possession. Every time the Knights regained the lead, Omega roared back to tie it. The YOC crowd kept cheering loudly in support of their team, while the Omega bench and senior players responded with cheers of support. It all came down to the last 23 seconds of the game. Omega’s Tayshawn Cassey tied the game at 53 apiece with a three-pointer. The Knights now had the ball with a chance to score and end the game. While setting up in the offensive zone, Omega caused a turnover and was fouled with 19.1 seconds remaining. Andrew Patterson at the foul line made both of his shots, giving Crawford their first lead of the game. With two seconds left, Christian Blake was fouled again and went to the line, where he made 1 of his two shots. He finished the game going 5 for 6 from the line.

The final buzzer sounded, and Crawford Omega won their first game of the 2025/2026 campaign 56-53.

Head Coach Durell Coleman explained the keys to the victory. “Honestly, defence. We did not practice man-to-man defence at all. We played two-three zone in practice. They (YOC) showed up today and played man against us, and I thought, 'Let's see what they have,' so we played man. Honestly, we got production from our seventh, eighth, and ninth guys off the bench today. They are the unsung heroes. It was just a team win. We played really well.”

Both are looking forward to the season with the aim of making the playoffs in February 2026.

Chris Perrotte
OCN Reporter