Thunder survive scare, Patriots upset Reds
With the fifth-seeded Blessed Trinity Thunder in a dogfight against the 11th-seeded Centennial Cougars Monday in opening-round of the 61st Annual Standard High School Basketball Tournament at West Niagara, Blessed Trinity head coach Michael Hendrickse put the game in the hands of Matteo Villella.
“Today he was a beast in the post. We told him when he got the ball in the post, he had to score and he listened,” Hendrickse said. “He had 12 straight points for us in the paint and we were pretty proud that he committed to that, followed through and helped to get us that win.”
The Thunder ended up winning 61-51.
Hendrickse had to tell Villella a few times though before the message sunk in.
“A little bit. He is an unselfish player but he knows when he gets the ball he can score when he wants to.”
He likes Villella’s confidence and laid-back attitude.
“He is a good teammate and he is hard worker.”
It wasn’t that Villella was reluctant to score Monday but he knows there is a lot of talent around him.
“A lot of my teammates are really good shooters so I like to look outside a lot. I think I need a little more confidence to go by myself some times,” the 6-foot-3, 200-pounder said. “I like to pass it around more.”
The 17-year-old wasn’t thinking too much as he scored a dozen in a row.
“They were feeding me the ball and I just went with it.”
Many of the Grade 12 student’s shots in the post were highly contested.
“You just have to play through it. That’s how you have to play.”
The Cougars gave the Thunder all they could handle leading 27-25 at the half and 39-37 after three quarters.
“I am really proud of the kids. We came in as an under-seeded team compared to them and they are a really talented team,” Centennial coach Reese Radobenko said. “Congratulations to them but we came out with a lot of intensity, we fought hard and we made it a lot more competitive than people were expecting.”
The Cougars exceeded those expectations with a lot of hard work.
“We haven’t had a lot of practice time but we emphasize to the kids the old saying that if talent doesn’t work hard, hard work beats talent,” he said. “We are not as skilled as most teams but if we come out with a lot of intensity and we fight, that is the result. We could have won this game and we will use that momentum moving forward.”
Radobenko has no specific aspirations for the team this season.
“We want to play together and play a good brand of basketball. We are under-skilled but we want to make it tough on teams.”
He is not that far removed from being a player in the Standard tourney and is enjoying the opportunity to pay it forward.
“It’s awesome. Jason Higgins asked me to come help out the last couple of years with the junior teams and this year I was able to take a step forward and take the head coaching job for the senior team,” Radobenko said. “It is a cool experience being able to be back with a bunch of kids that I have been working with the past couple of years and back in my old school. It’s a lot of fun.”
The game was tied 47-47 with 4:26 left on the clock before the Thunder clinched the win with a 10-0 run.
“We played pretty good. It is only our fourth game this year so I think we are still trying to figure out who we are and what we can do,” Hendrickse said. “I am proud of the guys. They pulled it together at the end, at the right time and I was happy with our performance.”
Villella said there was no secret to how the Thunder closed out the game.
“It just took some effort. We have really good team chemistry and we know how to play off of each other.”
Hendrickse has high hopes for the season.
“We have some veteran Grade 12s and we are hoping as the season progresses we are going to hit our stride and be able to play to our strengths. I think we are pretty athletic.”
Villella shares that view.
“There are a lot of good guys on this team and we should do well.”
STATS PACK
Thunder 61 Cougars 51
Cat’s Caboose Players of the game: BT’s Matteo Villella and Centennial’s Nate Perna
For the Blessed Trinity Thunder: Luka Rafanelli 22; Matteo Villella 19; Danijel Skrban 6; Mico Penich 5; Antonio Plesa 4; Tre’von Higgins 3; Jamie Coldwell 2;
For the Centennial Cougars: Nate Perna 19; Marco Reyes 14; Callum Brown 12; Jalen Davis 4; Jesse Opufo 2.
PATRIOTS 51 REDS 45
The 13th-seeded Laura Secord Patriots knocked off the fourth-seeded Denis Morris Reds Monday at Denis Morris in the opening round of the Standard tournament.
Scoring for Laura Secord were Travis Joyce 9; Lucas Andres 8; Malachi Davis 6; Nick Hatrick 5; Abdi Farah 4; Angelo Dulak 4; and, Max Fretz 4. Eleven points were unaccounted for on game sheet.
Replying for the Reds were: Travis Palmer 23; Cole Kelly 10; Geremy McRae 8; Jack Millar 6; and, Sebastian Pena 1. There were three too many points on game sheet for Denis Morris.
Cat’s Caboose players of the game were Farah for Laura Secord and Pena for Denis Morris.
