Visitors feel at home in winner’s circle
Strong finish in Standard Tournament final rematch improves Phoenix to 2-0 versus Cyclone
How steep was the learning curve Thursday when the Saint Francis Phoenix opened defence of their Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association double-A boys basketball championship against a familiar foe in a decidedly unfamiliar setting?
Picture a momentum-shifting — and momentum-draining — basket from behind the three-point arc and you have a pretty good idea of exactly how high.
The Phoenix, who were playing at E.L. Crossley Secondary School in Fonthill for the first time, sank eight of those on their way to a 66-55 win over the host Cyclone in the semifinal round in the morning.
They advanced to the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations on March 9-11 in Windsor by topping the Eden Flyers, 63-49, later in the day.
Saint Francis overcame a 25-21 halftime deficit to Crossley in a rematch of the Standard Tournament final. The score was knotted at 39 after three-quarters of play before the Phoenix began making their shots, and the Cyclone began missing theirs.
Saint Francis head coach Jon Marcheterre said playing in a gym for the first time can require a period of adjustment.
“It’s an optics thing, looking at the rim getting comfortable with it. By no means would I make an excuse for anything, but I don’t think any of our guys have played here before,” he said. “This is my first time being in this building.
“Maybe that’s why it took us a little longer to get comfortable shooting. But, in the end, it was just a matter of continuing to forgive ourselves a little bit.”
Saint Francis, which earned the bronze medal at OFSAA last year, stayed focused on the game plan despite a slow start.
“We didn’t hit anything in the first half,” Marcheterre said. “We made a couple of little adjustments, but we knew that we weren’t going to go the entire game without hitting shots.”
The Phoenix, who defeated the Cyclone 70-58 for the gold medal at the Standard Tournament in December, faced a different Crossley team in the rematch.
“Defensively, they played a little more physically with us today than they did at The Standard,” Marcheterre said. “We saw a lot of what we anticipated: they’re going to try to shoot the ball and they’ve got some good shooters.”
An inability to play a “team game” hurt the Cyclone on their home court. “We still have to play a team game. In the fourth quarter especially, we just couldn’t score, and it wasn’t for not having chances,” head coach Aaron Belding said.
“It was almost like we lost focus and couldn’t put the ball in the net,” Belding added.
He conceded there were a couple of plays when pressure from the Phoenix caused a turnover, “but, for the most part, our guys are used to playing with that type of pressure. It was just a matter of going down and finishing, and we just didn’t finish.”
Igor M’Baya, with 24 points, and Sacade Kasamba, with 18, paced the Phoenix. Carter Teal, with 16, Owen Dobbie, with 14, T.J. Hurley, with 11, and Riley Bleich, with 10, scored in double digits for Crossley.
Kasamba, with 19 points, M’Baya, with 17, and Quinton Duemo, with 14, were top scorers for Saint Francis in the final against Eden. Luke Reinaerts, with 19, Kyle Mulder, with nine, and Trent Thorpe, with seven, led the Flyers on offence.
“First off, that’s a fantastic team in Saint Francis, so there’s no shame in that loss whatsoever,” Eden head coach Jonathan Thorpe said. “Fourteen points to a team like that is a fantastic job for us.”
With only four to five players graduating, the future looks greater for senior boys basketball at Eden.
“We relied heavily on some Grade 11s this year. We’ve got a strong group of Grade 10s and a good group of Grade 9s as well,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of momentum moving forward.
“We’ve had a really good season and this was a nice way to finish it off.”
Hamilton champion Bernie Custis defeated the Governor Simcoe Redcoats, 59-37, and the Blessed Trinity Thunder topped the Greater Fort Erie Gryphons, 67-44, in semifinal action Thursday at the SOSSA triple-A championships at Notre Dame College School in Welland. Bernd.Franke@niagaradailies.com 905-225-1624 | @TribSportsDesk