Revolving stars send Pats to Trib final
A complete team effort has propelled the Saint Paul Patriots to the championship game of the 68th Annual Welland Tribune Basketball Tournament.
On Friday night, it was the defensive and offensive play of guard Mark Cruz that helped the Patriots knock off the Governor Simcoe Redcoats 66-58 in the semifinals at Notre Dame.
The Grade 12 guard, who was the 2024 winner of the George Hillesheim Award as the top boys basketball player in Niagara Falls, scored 12 points in the game while being tasked with guarding Simcoe star Noah Budgell.
“Mark is one of the most talented kids that I have ever seen play basketball and one of the hardest workers,” Saint Paul head coach Michael Doodeman said. “And he is a great kid to coach. He’s got a really great heart and he is a nice, nice kid even though he looks like a pitfall on the court. He was guarding Noah today which was a shock to a lot of people but he did a great job.”
On Thursday night, Doodeman suggested that Liam Williams would be guarding Budgell but his team had other ideas.
“I said that and they convinced me to give him a shot and I did. Noah is a tall guy so if you have a threat coming from down low he has to kind of keep his head at two places at once.”
Cruz said there was a simple explanation for the change in plans.
“Liam wanted to guard their other guy (Ari Steenhuis) so the coach put me on him (Budgell) and told me to do my job and try to stop him as much as I could,” the 17-year-old said. “He is a good player but I did what I could. I just tried to cut off his driving a little bit, try to cut him off every time he went to the rim and take away his three.”
The Grade 12 student is loving the chance to play on a team that boasts multiple good players.
“It’s different. We have a lot of good guys that can push the ball, dribble the ball and I think everyone on our starting five can really shoot and drive. We can really create space for each other.”
He feels the Patriots are a special team because of the way it plays together.
“We don’t let each other down and we pick up each other when our shots are not falling.”
Doodeman was thrilled for his team to be playing in the championship final Saturday night.
“It’s awesome. I don’t know if it is the first time but it is huge and what we wanted,” he said. “We are playing pretty well but the intensity is there. Different guys have had different really good games and I have never had to question the intensity.”
Saint Paul did make the Tribune finals in 2004, losing 62-45 to Governor Simcoe.
“Tomorrow night we have to play really hard again,” Doodeman said. “I don’t know what else to say.”
Cruz would love for his team to win the school’s first-ever Tribune title but there is another goal lurking in the minds of the Patriots.
“Our focus is on trying to win this championship but this season we want to go to OFSAA (Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations) and beat Saint Francis. That is our goal this year,” Cruz said. “It will take dedication and it starts in practice with us coming together and playing as a team.”
The two teams will meet for the first time at Saint Paul’s last game of the regular season.
Simcoe heard coach Shaun Feor described the game as a tight battle.
“It is what we expected out of Saint Paul. It was a back and forth game, it went possession by possession and it came down to the end and they pulled away,” he said. “They pulled away in the third quarter — they had a huge quarter with 27 points — and then we had a massive fourth to claw back.”
A massive fourth was an understatement. Trailing 57-40 heading into the final quarter, Simcoe cut the lead to 57-55 with 2:57 left, thanks mainly to a personal 9-0 run by the Redcoats’ Austin Blanchard. Simcoe then missed a highly-contested layup to tie the score before Saint Paul closed the game out with a 9-3 run.
“I am really proud of the boys. They have the fighting spirit in them and at the beginning of the year I always say ‘A good basketball team can come back from a small deficit but a great basketball team can come back from multiple deficits or a deep deficit,’ ” Feor said.
Doodeman agree he was getting a little apprehensive as the score got closer and closer.
“It got to two? Oh shoot,” he said, with surprise. “That happened in the last game too but I never felt that we were going to lose. We showed our composure and turned it around.”
Feor is now looking forward to the rest of the season.
“Moving forward, we’ve got four regular season games left and now it’s really making sure that we polish things up for playoffs and hopefully the zone championship and possibly SOSSA (Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association) and OFSAA.”
STATS PACK
Patriots 65 Redcoats 58
Policella Homes Players of the Game: Saint Paul’s Eric Kaufmann and Simcoe’s Noah Budgell.
For the Saint Paul Patriots: Eric Kaufmann 23; Isaac Jordan 14; Liam Williams 12; Mark Cruz 12; Patrick Magazzini 5.
For the Governor Simcoe Redcoats: Noah Budgell 29; Anderson Blanchard 14; Ari Steenhuis 11; Lucas Landry; Reid Oates 2.
Up next: Saint Paul advances to the championship final Saturday at 7 p.m. at Notre Dame.
Tournament admission: Cash-only admission for the games on Friday and Saturday is $5 for adults and $3 for students.
