Thunder and Tigers open with victories
With the Blessed Trinity Thunder clinging to a 25-24 lead over the Governor Simcoe Redcoats Monday, it was Michael Akinpetide’s time to shine.
The Grade 11 Thunder student scored 11 of his game-high 19 points in the final quarter to lead his squad to a 46-39 victory in the opening round of the 59th Annual Standard Kully’s Boys High School Basketball Tournament.
“He is a hustler, he works hard in practice and he always wants to learn more,” Blessed Trinity coach Jeff Moscato said. “He is always asking questions and trying to figure out what is wrong because I am new to this school as a coach so I have a new offence and everything.”
Moscato liked what he saw from Akinpetide right from the start.
“It was all hustle. It wasn’t even skill. He was all over the court.”
The 16-year-old played senior as a Grade 10 last year and that experience will benefit him this season.
“It definitely helped me with the intensity and it prepared me for better competition,” the 5-foot-11 Grimsby Grizzlies travel player said.
He only started playing travel ball in Grade 8.
“I wanted to better myself when it comes to basketball and play at the highest level possible.”
He has specific goals in mind for his team this season.
“We want to go undefeated and we are working towards that. We have a good team this year and we are all putting in the work.”
Moscato is not sure what to expect from his team this season.
“We have only had six practices and this was our first game,” he said. “They know the mistakes they are making and hopefully we can fix those and make our way through the tournament.”
He was happy with his team’s play Monday.
“There were some good points and some bad points but I liked the way they played down the stretch.”
Simcoe coach John Ingribelli saw lots of room for improvement in his young squad.
“We fought back but we just couldn’t sustain it. There were just too many mental breakdowns,” he said. “We shot 14-27 from the free-throw line, had 25 turnovers and we missed 10 easy layups. We left too many points on the floor.”
STATS PACK
Thunder 46 Redcoats 39
Kully’s Players of the Game: Simcoe’s Malcolm Perrin and BT’s Michael Akinpetide.
For the Blessed Trinity Thunder: Akinpetide 19; Caleb Olomide 15; Mateo Villella 5; Tre’von Higgins 3; Mawana Chidovi 2; Nicholas Kolenko 2.
For the Governor Simcoe Redcoats: Lochlan Belliveau 16; Perrin 14; Reza Changizian 3; Artem Trusevich 3; Reid Oates 2.
TIGERS 46 RAIDERS 27
The Ridley College Tigers advanced to the championship quarter-finals Monday with a 46-27 victory over the Holy Cross Raiders.
The Kully’s Players of the Game were Isaac Gonda for Ridley and Dwayne Osborne for Holy Cross.
Scoring for the Tigers were Gonda (14), Josh Onwuama (9), Parker Emanolidis (6),David Badalov (4) Thomas Vaillencourt (4), Nick Nymbilli (3), Darius des Vignes (3), Jude Mbariiza (2) and Amr Fayed (1).
Replying for Holy Cross were Osbourne (7), Owen Corcoran (6), Arin Sayegh (5), Joe Young (3), Josh Delladonne (2), Kyle DeLuca (2) and Owen Bradford-Andrew (2).
