Riveting rematch
A little more than a month after being sidelined before the Standard High School Basketball Tournament final and needing the support of crutches, Keenan L arm and was standing on his own in the winner’ s circle as a member of the last team standing at the Tribune Tournament.
In early December the 6-foot-2 guard’ sn ame was nowhere to be found on the scoresheet when the Welland Centennial Cougars lost to the St. Francis Phoenix in the championship final at the Standard Tournament. On Saturday night, when the Cougars came back to dethrone the reigning champion Notre Dame Fighting Irish to take the overall title at the Tribune Tournament, his name was all over it.
Larmand tied Notre Dame’s Braidon Moore in scoring with a game-high 21 points, made the first all-star team at the mid-season showcase and, as if an exclamation point was needed, was selected as most valuable player winning the Larry Cooney Trophy.
“I’m just happy we won, because we lost last year,” the soft-spoken Grade 11 said after Centennial defeated host Notre Dame 69-63 in a riveting rematch of last year’s final.
Notre Dame, which also beat Centennial for the gold medal in 2014, was the top seed at the fourday, 16-team showcase in Welland, but Larmand said he wasn’t intimidated playing the Irish on their home court.
“It’s just another game.”
With a standing-room-only Dillon Hall almost evenly split between supporters of the two largest high schools in Welland, the marquis matchup at the 63rd edition of Ontario’s oldest high school tournament was in a league by itself it terms of decibels.
“The crowd’s kind of crazy when you score,” he said with a laugh. “It’s kind of crazy with the sides going at each other.”
Centennial used a well-balanced attack to overcome 21-11, first quarter; 40-32, halftime; and 50-46, third quarter; deficits against a Notre Dame team predicated on speed and defence.
Throughout it all, the Cougars kept their eye on the ball, and their focus on the next possession.
“We didn’t put our heads down, we were down by eight or 10, but we just going at them,” he said, citing an important key to the comeback.
Centennial head coach Phil Mosley emphasized the team’s “resiliency” in his post-celebration comments.
“This final game was a culmination of what our team is all about,” he said. “We are resilient, we always play hard.
“When we shoot the ball and don’t make it, we don’t get down on ourselves. We know the next shot is going to go.”
Chemistry on the close-knit team is second-to-none.
“We believe in ourselves, we believe in each other, the coaches believe in the players,” Mosley said. “This is a special group of kids.”
While the Cougars cruised to the final with lopsided wins, by 35, 31 and 37 points, respectively, they knew the Irish would present a more-formidable challenge.
“Notre Dame is such an incredible defensive team,” Mosley said. “They frustrated us at the beginning, they’re well-schooled in the defensive principles.
“Offensively, they were hot, so we had to weather the storm and believe that we could come back.”
He suggested the Cougars had an invaluable sixth man in the Centennial fans that filled the northend bleachers inside Dillon Hall to capacity.
“We don’t make that comeback without the emotion from that crowd,” Mosley said. “I just can’t say enough about how proud I am to be part of Centennial.
“Our student body and our fans just came out in full support, they truly were a big factor in our win.”
Notre Dame head coach Mark Gallagher
“Obviously, we’re super disappointed with the result, but it was a great high school basketball game,” he said. “The atmosphere was great, their fans were great, our fans were great.
“It was a great game to play in.” Foul trouble forced Notre Dame to make adjustments in its lineup that interrupted the team’s flow.
“That broke the rhythm,” Gallagher said. “We had odd combinations, which sort of threw off our defensive matchups, it threw off that running we did in the first half.
“We sort of got out of sync and we stood around.”
He conceded that weakness on Notre Dame’s part played right into Centennial’s strengths.
“They shoot the ball so well, you can’t let them hang around,” he said. “It doesn’t take them much to put the scoreboard on you.
“Just when we needed them to miss, they made a shot and kept us at bay a little bit.”
Rounding out the scoring for Centennial were Connor Joliffe, with 17 points; Reese Radobenko, 12; Jacob Bray, 11; Carl Paulemont, 5; Nick Yioldassis, three.
Jonah Gruarin, 17; Brandon Graziani, 12; Rovenston JeanBaptiste, 6; Anthony Cimino, 5, and David Jones, 2; also scored for Notre Dame.