Phoenix top Raiders in NCAA opener

The defending Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations AA champion Saint Francis Phoenix senior boys basketball team opened the Niagara Catholic Athletic Association regular season Wednesday with a 66-38 victory over the visiting Holy Cross Raiders.

Phoenix head coach Jon Marcheterre will take the W but wasn’t overly thrilled with his team’s performance.

“We really didn’t play very well. We were on our heels a lot and it looked like we were allowing the play to come to us more than we would like to see,” he said. “We weren’t dictating enough.”

Part of it is related to his squad’s youth.

“We only have four Grade 12s and we even have one Grade 10. Of the four Grade 12s, one has never played basketball before and we have two guys on our team who have never played basketball before. It was our guys needing to realize that regardless of who you are playing you have to be at a certain level or standard of competitiveness and we didn’t have that tonight.”

Marcheterre gave credit to Holy Cross for its effort.

“They played hard, they didn’t back down and they kept it a close game.”

Holy Cross head coach Austin Anderson was fine with opening up the season against the defending OFSAA and NCAA champions.

“I don’t think a few of their players played — I saw Andrew Enns on the bench — but it is a decent barometer to see where we are kind of at and where we need to be because obviously we are going to play them again,” he said. “I am hoping we can make the NCAA (AA) final and then maybe a consolation final or two, the Standard maybe.”

The Raiders will do it with effort and grit.

“Overall there are lots of things to work on but I think we will have a hard-working team. We are going to have to focus on defence because I don’t think we will be a high-scoring team,” Anderson said. “We have a great rebounder in Owen Bradford-Andrew and we are going to try and build around him.”

The Raiders appear to have a number of players that can find a spot in their rotation.

“One player was injured today and one player was in Ottawa so once we have those two players back I think it will shore up the rotation which will be good.”

STATS PACK

Phoenix 66 Raiders 38

Cat’s Caboose Player of the Game: Saint Francis’ Elijah Quissua with 19 points.

For the Saint Francis Phoenix: Quissua 19; Awab Ali 14; Austin Hinds 12; Trent Dobson 11; Jakub Labanowicz 6; Nawaf Kigab 2; Jack Ciocca 2.

For the Holy Cross Raiders: Joey Young 8; Matteo D’Aria 7; Owen Bradford-Andrew 7; Daniel Orr 6; Owen Corcoran 4; Hunter Herring-Dent 3; Durico Wynter 2; Terrell Wallace 2.