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Championship night set for 64th Annual Welland Tribune Tournament

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The stage is set for championship night of the 64th Annual Welland Tribune Basketball Tournament.

The Lakeshore Catholic Gators will meet the Greater Fort Erie Gryphons at 5:30 p.m. Saturday and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish will meet the Governor Simcoe Redcoats in the championship game at 7 p.m.

Both games will be played at Notre Dame.

The Fighting Irish will be looking for their fifth Tribune title in the past seven years and 41st overall while the Redcoats will be hunting for their fifth overall title and their first Tribune championship since 2004.

Notre Dame advanced to the final by defeating Grimsby 72-36, Saint Michael 69-53 and E.L. Crossley 73-67 in overtime in Friday night’s semifinals.

Tournament leading scorers for Notre Dame heading into Saturday’s final are Andrew Zezella (17.7 points per game) David Jones (15.7 points per game), Shammar Campbell (8.7 points per game) and Anthony Cimino (6.7 points per game).

Governor Simcoe’s leading tournament scorers are Max Grant (11.7 points per game), Darren Johnston (11 points per game), Cal Anderson (11 points per game), Mason MacEachern (9 points per game) and Mitch McPherson (7.7 points per game).

After opening the tournament with a 58-32 loss to Centennial, the Lakeshore Catholic Gators qualified for the consolation final by beating Port Colborne 80-49 and Sir Winston Churchill 63-55. Lakeshore last won the Tribune consolation crown in 2010.

The Gators top scorers heading into Saturday’s game are Thomas Cryer (10 points per game), Samuel Beifuss (10 points per game), Allan Pambianco (8.3 points per game) and Aiden Plante (7 points per game).

Greater Fort Erie opened with a 57-48 loss to Denis Morris before rebounding to knock off Westlane 72-62 and Grimsby 65-41.

The Gryphons leading scorers heading into Saturday’s consolation final are Ethan VanNatter (18.7 points per game), Austin Ladouceur (11.7 points per game), Micah Stewart (11 points per game), Avery Steinback-Parker (8.3 points per game) and Zachary Tyrrell (8 points per game).

Bernie Puchalski, a graduate of Brock University and Niagara College, worked in journalism in Niagara for more than 27 years before taking a voluntary buyout from The Standard at the end of 2016. He started his career as a news reporter for the Niagara Falls Review before switching to sports reporting. He was a sports reporter and sports editor at the Niagara Falls Review before joining the Standard's sports department in 1996. He was named the Standard's sports editor in 2000 and became the regional sports editor, in charge of the Niagara Falls Review, Welland Tribune and Standard, in 2015, a position he held until he left the company. During his time in newspapers, he was a multiple winner and finalist for numerous Ontario and Western Ontario Newspaper Awards for sports reporting, spot news reporting and humour writing. He was a member of the Standard Boys Basketball Tournament committee and co-chair of the Standard Girls Basketball Tournament, helping to raise tens of thousands of dollars for bursaries presented to participants in the tournament. He also served on countless local sports committees both in Niagara Falls and St. Catharines.

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