Tigers punch ticket to consolation final
Felix Hadzic did some heavy lifting for the Ridley College Tigers Thursday.
The 16-year-old, Grade 11 student poured in 21 points as the Tigers defeated the E.L. Crossley Cyclone 67-40 in a consolation round semifinal game at the 60th Annual Standard High School Boys Basketball Tournament.
The Tigers advance to the consolation final Friday versus the Smithville Christian Storm.
Ridley coach Josh Doan loves what Hadzic brings to the court.
“He is a hyper-aggressive, strong-bodied kid,” Doan said. “When he can get the ball up the court and move around, he’s hard to stop. If he gets in a zone, watch out.”
Doan felt Hadzic was a difference maker Thursday.
“It started with him today. He decided to take the team on his back a little bit and once he started, everyone else started rallying around him. When we play together as a team, we’re tough to beat.”
Hadzic, a native of Munich, Germany, is in his first season with the Tigers. He learned of Ridley through a friend of his family.
“It’s a pretty big adjustment but I have a lot of people around to help. Anywhere you want to go there is going to be someone there,” he said. “The biggest difference is the support. There is someone to help you no matter what.”
On the court, Hadzic didn’t appear to need any guidance.
“I’m the point guard, I try to control the game and get everybody involved and get myself involved. Seems like when I get rolling the team gets rolling too,” he said.
Hadzic admitted he was unfamiliar with The Standard Tournament until this week.
“I’m just trying to treat it like any other tournament and go out there and help my team win,” he said.
The ninth-ranked Tigers led by only four at the half before putting the game away with a strong second half.
“We absolutely played our best half of the year, not even close,” Doan said. “We made a couple strategic changes, we were worried about their big player (Matthew Kleinsmith) who had a big first half and a huge game yesterday and we realized we needed five guys to stop him instead of one. We went into the best defence we had and those defensive moments carried a lot offence. We’re a really good transition team if we can get going.
“I’m proud of the guys. They really played well today.”
The Tigers now have an opportunity to win their first consolation title since 2016-17.
“We’re excited. When we told them it was going to be televised I saw the guys perk up,” Doan said. “We’re unique in that most of my students are from all over the world. They’re learning as they get deeper into this tournament the scope how big this tournament is in the region and they’re very excited.”
The Cyclone’s short bench —they had only three substitutes —caught up with them in the second half.
“We were out three starters and then some other guys from the bench so we knew coming in it was going to be tough,” Crossley coach Ryan Petro said. “We were happy to hang in there for a half.”
Kleinsmith dropped 21 for the Cyclone and finished with 85 points in three games.
“He was amazing all week long, not just on offence, but defensively he’s been amazing for us and he’s been like that for the last few years,” Petro said. “It’s nothing new to us.”
STATS PACK
Tigers 67 Cyclone 40
Cat’s Caboose Player of the Game: Ridley’s Parker Emanoilidis.
Boston Pizza Player of the Game: Crossley’s Jayden Thompson.
For the Ridley Tigers: Felix Hadzic 21; Pranav Wadhawan 8; Nick Nymbilli 7; Parker Emanoilidis 7; Amr Fayed 7; Luka Jankovic 6; Michael Creglia 5; David Ekenta-Ifeanyi 2; Harry Hou 2; Seun Martins 1; Tobi Osamiluyi 1
For the E.L. Crossley Cyclone: Matthew Kleinsmith 21; Jayden Thompson 14; Cole Traver 5.
Up next: The Tigers advance to the consolation final Friday versus the Smithville Christian Storm. Game time at the St. Catharines Collegiate is 5:30 p.m. Games will be live streamed at https://livestream.com/accounts/15502389/60thstandard.
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