It was a great three-week ride to cap off a fine season for the Holy Family eighth-grade boys basketball team. The Panthers posted a 36-31 victory over St. Hilary in the Akron Catholic Youth Organization Division I-AAA championship at the University of Akron's James A. Rhodes Arena on Sunday March 2.

A week earlier at the JAR Feb. 24, head coach Nick Ciavarella recorded his 300th career victory when the top-seeded Panthers defeated Immaculate Heart of Mary 44-34. Ciavarella has been coaching at Holy Family since the mid-1980s. This year's eighth-grade city title is the Panthers' 15th during his tenure.

Holy Family finished the regular season at 11-1, before knocking off St. Joseph 40-16 in the opening round.

In the championship game, the Panthers were led by Victor Pereira's nine points, all of which came from behind the arc. Kevin Enright and Zach Leonatti had seven points apiece while Jim Griggs -- the team's leading scorer during the regular season -- added six points despite sitting half the game with foul trouble. Griggs had a key steal and lay-up with 2:06 remaining in the game to put the game out of reach.

"We had a lot of poise today," said Ciavarella. "We didn't seem to rattle. We play so well together. This is a very unselfish bunch."

Meanwhile, Holy Family's eighth-grade girls basketball team completed a two-year unbeaten string in Akron CYO play with a 30-24 victory March 2 over St. Hilary in the Division I-AAA championship game at the JAR.

The Panthers finished the regular season 12-0 and earned a pair of post-season wins at Rhodes Arena to match the mark -- 14-0 against league opponents -- the same group of girls posted last year as seventh graders. Holy Family was 24-5 overall this season, which included a pre-season tournament championship at the Hoban Classic in the Castle and a runner-up finish in the Panthers' own holiday tourney, where they were defeated in the finals by a team from Erie, Penn.

In the championship game at Rhodes, guard Maddie Sheppard's 11 points paced Holy Family. All eight players scored for the 11th time this season. Forward Melanie Winters added five points and wing Sarah Loerch had four points. Holy Family led the entire game and had a 13-7 advantage at halftime. St. Hilary got no closer than three points in the fourth quarter.

"We are very balanced and do a great job of hitting the open person," said head coach Mary Ann Miano. "Every girl on the team loves to pass the ball and has led us in scoring for a game at least once this season, which is remarkable.

"Defensively we usually hold teams under 20 points," Miano added. "On the big court, St Hilary did a nice job of taking the ball to the basket off the dribble. We were able to force a few key turnovers with our press in the second half -- and get some easy baskets."

-- From staff reports

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