Bulldogs back in final
The Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs have an opportunity to break a 54-year drought Friday when they square off versus the Eden Flyers in the Kully’s/Standard High School Boys Basketball Tournament championship final.
The Bulldogs qualified for the final with a 63-47 victory over the E.L. Crossley Cyclone Thursday night at Ridley College.
The Bulldogs last won a Standard championship in the 1968/69 season when they defeated the St. Catharines Collegiate Saints for their lone tournament title.
The Flyers have never won a Standard championship.
“I’m a student of history so I’m fully aware of the history of the tournament and how important it is to the city and the region,” Sir Winston coach Martin Cook said. “To represent Sir Winston and our basketball team — just to be in the finals is amazing to me — and we’d really like to bring it home and raise a banner in that school that hasn’t been raised in over 50 years.”
Cook was almost in shock afterward discussing his emotions.
“I don’t really have words other than enthralled, excited, astonished — whatever you can come up with,” he said. “We just couldn’t be happier. This was a quiet goal of ours. We didn’t want to jinx anything, a lot of good teams.
“These boys know the history of this school has not been as a basketball power. We’ve had a few good teams in the last few years and they’re playing for them and hopefully for a championship.”
Sir Winston forward Bennett Pisek, who led the Bulldogs with 16 points, can’t wait to hit the floor Friday night.
“We’re really excited coming off a big win and I think we can carry the momentum to the finals,” the 17-year-old, Grade 12 student said. “I think it will be a once in a lifetime kind of thing. I think we’ll have to block out the crowd because they’ll be a lot of Eden fans there and they like to say a some things but we just have to play to our strengths.”
Pisek had a strong game on the boards as well.
“He was sort of our X factor today, a rebounder, he does all the little things,” Cook said. “Probably people don’t know his name very much, but he deserves a lot of credit.”
Pisek loves crashing the boards.
“I think I did that pretty well tonight,” he said. “I wouldn’t say it’s difficult, I would say it’s more fun. It takes its toll on the body, but man, it’s fun to do it.”
Cook tipped his cap to the Cyclone for turning in a honest effort.
“We knew they would be a gritty, tough team,” he said. “They have a bunch of guys who have played ball for a long time so we did not come in taking them lightly.”
Cook knows the Flyers are a formidable foe.
“We shot the ball well, I didn’t think we played to our abilities,”he said. “We’re going to have to have a better game. Eden are a very tough team, a big team, a very skilled team, so we have to be better than we were tonight.”
Crossley coach Brian Bleich had no issues losing to a better team.
“I’m very happy. In this season where we are, that’s a win in my mind,” he said. “We played that well. Give them credit, they’re a great team.
“They are bigger and more physical that us and very hard to stop. Our guys stuck it out and didn’t quit playing.”
STATS PACK
Bulldogs 63 Cyclone 47
Kully’s/Regatta Sport Players of the Game: Sir Winston’s Bennett Pisek and Crossley’s Connor Bleich.
Scoring for the Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs: Bennett Pisek 16, Brady Pupek 14, Mazen Yagubi 9; Matteo Scaglione 9, Mujeeb Omar 6, Sawyer Neufeld 3, Will McApline 3, Jaxon Beaman 2, Daniel Nunez 2.
Scoring for the E.L. Crossley Cyclone: Connor Bleich 11, Luca Burattini 10; Jackson Kalybaba 9; Samuel Jeffrey 9; Matthew Kleinsmith 3.
Up next: Sir Winston versus Eden, Friday at 7:45 p.m. at the Collegiate for the championship.
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