Another OFSAA medal for Phoenix
The St. Francis Phoenix senior boys basketball team took care of business at the OFSAA AA championships bringing home a bronze medal.
“It’s nothing we take for granted and we were seeded sixth,” Phoenix head coach Jon Marcheterre said. “We believed in ourselves, but we have a very young team and, at times, immaturity can get the better of us.”
Starting two Grade 10s and a Grade 11 had the Phoenix coaching staff cautiously optimistic heading to the tournament in Timmins.
“Expectations away from the players were to have a good showing and sort of build on that,” he said. “We knew we had talent and it was just a matter of overcoming a little bit of immaturity and coming together as a single unit to play selflessly.
“The guys — as they have been doing all year — exceeded expectations and surprised us in a positive way.”
Marcheterre saw a lot of maturity and a lot of growth on the floor.
“We learned a lot of tough lessons on our Bahamas trip and through the post season,” he said. “It was a heckuva performance for us to get to that bronze-medal game and win.”
The bronze is the eighth OFSSA medal for the boys basketball program since 2002 and third in the past six years.
“Hopefully we will have an opportunity to get back there next year and see what we can do.”
Given the talented youth on the team, the odds look pretty good.
Grade 10 players Connor Landell and Sacade Kasamba both had an excellent OFSAA tournament and Grade 11 athlete Quinton Duemo also excelled.
“Who knows if we will have any of our Grade 12s returning for that extra year, but if a couple return, we will have a really good shot of getting back there,” Marcheterre said.
Graduating players for the Phoenix include: Luc Fortin, who provided good depth and went to OFSAA three years; Cam Van Hezewyk, who showed toughness in the paint and was one of the team’s vocal leaders; Enrico Rescigno, another solid bench player; Nick Hoggan, a key sixth man who could shoot the three and play strong defence; and, captains Sam Braithwaite and Igor M’Baya.
“The two of them (captains) are the heart and soul of our team and they’ve carried us in many ways for the last two years,” Marcheterre said. “Igor was a bit of a role player last year, but at OFSAA he was a big contributor.
“Sam has been tremendous for the program since he arrived.”
Other members of the St. Francis team, coached by Marcheterre, Jeremy DelaCruz, Jelena Mamic and Pat Sullivan, are Andres Pelaez, Marko Al-Kayed, and Grady Vandersloot.
St. Francis opened the tournament with a 78-37 victory over 16th-seeded St. Ignatius (Braithwaite 18; M’Baya 16; Duemo 15) and then advanced to the semifinals by defeating 11th-seeded Thornlea 75-52 (Kasamba 30; Landell 16; Braithwaite 12) and third-seeded Mother Teresa 68-63 (M’Baya 22; Braithwaite 13; Kasamba 10).
The win against Mother Teresa was sweet because that was the team that defeated the Phoenix in the gold-medal game in 2018.
In the semifinals against Westview, the Phoenix led 18-10 after one quarter but trailed 24-21 at the half and 47-32 after three quarters before ending up on the wrong side of a 61-44 decision to the eventual silver medalist.
“It was a tough game,” Marcheterre said. “We got ourselves into foul trouble and we had to switch from man to playing zone to try and protect ourselves from that foul trouble.
“It was a combination of a little bit of immaturity from our guys and tough calls.”
Westview was able to grab a commanding lead in their third quarter, thanks to their point guard.
“He was on fire and he was hitting threes all over the gym,” Marcheterre said. “It was incredible and he ended up with seven threes.”
Landell had 13 against second-seeded Westview while M’Baya netted 10 and Duemo, Kasamba and Braithwaite scored six.
Against Crescent in the bronze-medal game, the Phoenix took immediate control of the game, building a lead of 23-7 after the first quarter and extending that lead to 42-22 and 47-33 after the second and third quarters. The final score was 55-39.
“That is the way our games have gone this season,” Marcheterre said. “We were able to get a good lead, maintain it and stay out of foul trouble.”
Braithwaite led St. Francis versus fourth-seeded Crescent with 22 points. Kasamba hopped 11 and M’Baya netted seven.
St. Francis and Crescent were the only teams to make it to the Final Four for the second straight year.
“They are the team we beat in 2015 for our gold medal,” he said. “They have a really nice private school program.”
Saint Paul, the other Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association representative at OFSAA, went 0-3, losing 58-43 to Corpus Christi, 75-45 to St. Joseph’s and 68-61 to St. Ignatius.
Saint Paul’s team, coached by Jeff MacDonald and Frank Cappretta, was made up of Jerwyn Tutanes, Justin Crisiti, Joe Ciampa, Joe Goulet, Dylan Paolone, John Graovaz, Devon Schiller-Cleveland, Will Schmahl, Sandro Guarasci, Jarrel Pappin, Houssein Alayan and Nick Cristelli.
