Barrett leads Gryphons in Trib opener
There was no stopping Kyle Barrett Thursday morning.
The 15-year-old, Grade 10 student poured in a game-high 20 points to lead the Greater Fort Erie Gryphons past the Denis Morris Red 55-31 in an opening round game at the 65 Annual Tribune Boys Basketball Tournament at E.L. Crossley.
Barrett’s performance came as no surprise to Fort Erie coach Dave Adamyk.
“By now, mid way through the season, I expect it of him,” Adamyk said. “He can flat out score. He’s a player. At the start of the seasonI figured there would be a learning curve but he fit right in from Day 1 and he’s winning player of the game in big tournaments.”
Barrett, who plays travel for Mike Hurley with the Pelham Panthers, has made a quick transition to the senior level.
“For some teams, it can be really difficult because they are bigger and more mature,” Barrett said. “I’m pretty tall (6-foot-3) so that helps.”
The Gryphons jumped out to an early lead and never looked back.
“It was awesome,” Barrett said of the quick start. “It brings up our intensity as a team so we can really go off and score a ton after that.
“We haven’t played them but we played them last year and our coach knew how to play defence on them.”
Adamyk loved how his team performed on both sides of the ball.
“Defensively, I thought it was fantastic,” he said. “Until we put the subs in, they only scored one point in the second half. We were allowed to try a couple of different things because we had a little bit of a cushion.
“Offensively, I thought we looked good. Some of our shooters didn’t score probably as much as we would have liked, but it looked really good.”
Austin Ladouceur netted seven as he concentrated on distributing the ball.
“I thought Austin did a great job today as a point guard,” Adamyk said. “He got Kyle a whole bunch of points putting him in great positions and running the floor.”
The Gryphons are excited to be on the championship side of the draw after winning their opening game.
“It’s nice. We’ve been in the consolation every year and were close. Now we’re going into the unknown on the right side of the bracket. We’re looking forward to it,” Adamyk said.
DM guard Michael Conlon lamented his team’s lack of finish.
“It’s obviously frustrating when the ball doesn’t go in the basket,” he said. They were making their shots and we were just missing. You try to move past those. “Shots aren’t going to fall and they happens every day. They played a really great game. I give them a lot of credit. For us, not being able to put the ball in the basket, you can’t win games like that.”
Gryphons 55 Reds 31
Mountainview Homes Players of the Game: Kyle Barrett for Fort Erie with 20 points and Michael Conlon for Denis Morris with 9 points.
Greater Fort Erie Gryphons: Barrett 20; Zach Tyrell 17; Austin Ladouceur 7; Novontnay Brown 6; Avery Steinbach-Parker 5.
Denis Morris Reds: Conlon 9; Thomas Davidson 6; Noah Honsberger 5; Amari Allen 4; Anthony Caruso 4; Dylan Maltby 3.
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