Alexien the Great sparks Bulldogs
Alexien Evseyev had made quite the debut in the 58th Annual Standard High School Basketball Tournament.
On Thursday, the Grade 11 student scored 35 points to lead the Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs to a 75-62 victory over the St. Catharines Collegiate Saints in the consolation semifinals.
“I was expecting to do well,” the 16-year-old said. “I came (to senior) with a chip on my shoulder because I am not really known around here. I sat on the bench for a lot of teams and I have something to prove.”
The 6-foot-4 forward has done just that and is averaging 26.3 points per game heading into the consolation final Friday at 5:30 p.m. at St. Catharines Collegiate.
“I want to go out and do my best every game,” Evseyev said. “We lost to GFESS (Greater Fort Erie in opening game) and I was really disappointed because I wanted to be on the winner’s side playing for a championship.
“Now we are hoping to win the consolation.”
Like many talented players in the tournament, Evseyev plays his travel ball with the Pelham Panthers.
“There is a lot of talent there because they have really good coaches like Mike Hurley and Brian Bleich and we have Mihai (No Limit Performance’s) Raducanu on Thursday,” he said.
Evseyev has seen a big difference between junior and senior ball.
“The skill isn’t too much different but the pace is so much faster,” he said. “Everyone is running up and down the floor, you see the smart fouls and everyone is going after it.”
Churchill head coach Greg Loucks is happy to have Evseyev on his team.
“He is a good player from last year’s junior team that went to SOSSA (Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association) and had a good run,” he said. “He is an excellent shooter, he has some size, he has some discipline issues as you could see by the one play but he’s a great player.
“He can really score.”
Trailing 56-47 heading into the fourth quarter, the Saints cut the lead to 56-52 and then starter Louizidor Fenelon went down with an injury. After a lengthy delay, the game restarted and the Bulldogs took control, outscoring the Saints 19-10 to finish the game.
“It was a hard-fought game,” Collegiate coach Allison Mauro said. “We came out with the goal to make it to Friday but unfortunately we didn’t get that far.
“One of our starters went down and we couldn’t recover, but overall I am very optimistic about the whole season.”
Mauro likes how her team plays with heart.
“We just have to work a little bit offensively on our execution.”
Loucks was impressed with how good a game the Saints gave his team.
“I hadn’t seen Collegiate play until today but they are scrappy and athletic,” he said. “We were a little sloppy but they impressed me.
“I was happy we pulled it out in the end.”
Churchill looks much different that last year’s squad.
“We have three Grade 11s come up who are quite good and most of our senior guys from last year were only in Grade 11 so the nucleus is back,” Loucks said. “We are much better than last year.”
STATS PACK
Bulldogs 75 Saints 62
Kully’s/No Limit Performance Player of the Game: Churchill’s Yaseen Ali with 15 points and Collegiate’s Nathan Taylor with 12 points.
For the Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs: Alexian Evseyev 35; Yaseen Ali 15; Connor Johnston 15; Hayden Paterson 5; Nate Butler 5.
For the St. Catharines Collegiate Saints: Joseph Waterman 22; Nathan Taylor 12; Ethan Taylor 6; Nick Sindingham 6; Jahmar Kennedy-Clarke 5; Louizidor Fenelon 5; Ethan Smith 4; Teegan Mann 2.
