Patriots hold off Wolfpack
Sam Dino stood tall for the Saint Paul Patriots Tuesday.
The 16-year-old, Grade 11 guard stands just 5-foot-2, but what Dino lacks in size, she more than makes up for in talent, smarts and determination.
Dino netted a game-high 18 points to lead the Patriots to a 35-29 victory over the West Niagara Wolfpack in an opening round game at the BPSN Girls Basketball Tournament Tuesday at A.N. Myer.
Being small on the court is nothing new for Dino.
“I’ve always been the smallest on the court but I love it,” she said. “With my size being small, I have to make myself big under the net and use my strength to make myself big. I love the intensity. Just proving myself every game is a new challenge and I love that.”
Dino, who has given up travel ball for soccer where she is a mid-field attacker for Niagara International, isn’t the only vertically challenged player on the Pats.
“We have a disadvantage with our size but we knew if we cleared out the gaps in the zone, we could use the middle to cut and use the gaps to create offence,” Dino said. “Considering we were down a lot of players and have overcome a lot of challenges in our season, and our height, it’s difficult but I know we have it.”
Saint Paul coach Michael Doodeman feels Dino is the key for his squad.
“We rely a lot on Sam, she’s good,” he said.
Doodeman felt ball movement was the key to taking on the taller Wolfpack.
“There’s a lot of good team players on the team. We can pass the ball. We’re not selfish and we can pass around the defence,” he said. “It was their first game too. They looked really tall so we said to box out and I think we did.”
West Niagara coach Holly Miller liked a lot of what she saw from her squad.
“Hustle and our fitness has been better than it has been,” she said, when asked about the positives she took away from the effort. “We had some good shooting from our post, which was a nice, and some distance — one of our girls had three threes in the first quarter which was nice to see.”
Miller would love to see her charges use their height more.
“I need to see more boxing out and rebounding but there are a lot of positives. There is a lot of be proud of,” she said.
Miller is enjoying her role at the school, which opened its new building in September.
“It’s a little bit of a challenge, but I would say a welcome challenge. We have a lot of height on this team which is good. Hard, but it’s been good for us.”
STATS PACK
Patriots 35 Wolf Pack 29
Cat’s Caboose Player of the Game: Saint Paul’s Sam Dino with 18 points.
Saint Paul Patriots: Sam Dino 18; S. Sacco 7; M. Marrie 6; S. Petrakis 2; S. Gigliotti 1.
West Niagara Wolf Pack: Coco Van Nynatten 11; Melissa Persaud 6; Ireland Hamilton 5; Lizzy Claussen 3; Harper MacQueen 2; Peyton Ransom 2.
The tournament is made possible with the help of Women Networking in Sports of Niagara, Tora Inc., Regional Doors and Hardware, Bromac Construction Inc., the Brock women’s basketball program, Alltech Automotive, St. Catharines CYO Basketball, Pelham Panthers basketball, Niagara Falls Red Raiders basketball, Niagara Rangers basketball, Lasting Images, the Niagara District Referees Association, the District School Board of Niagara and the Niagara Catholic District School Board.
