Budgell powers Redcoats into Standard final
Noah Budgell had a dominating performance Thursday to lead the Governor Simcoe Redcoats to a 70-41 victory over the West Niagara Wolfpack in the championship semifinals of the 61st Standard High School Boys Basketball Tournament at Ridley College.
The Grade 12 student poured in a game-high 43 points and is now averaging 32.3 points per game in the tournament. He was named his team’s player of the game Thursday night.
“He deserves that. He puts the work in on his own time, he is in the gym every morning by himself, he does training with Apex and I will get calls from him after practice asking me how he can get better and what he can do different,” Whoever gets him for post secondary — hopefully it will be university — they will be very lucky to have him,” Simcoe head coach Shaun Feor said.
Budgell has 43 but could have had more than 50 if not for some missed layups.
“The ball was slipping out of my hands but no excuses. I’ve got to be making those,” he said.
College coaches having been asking Feor about Budgell, who also plays for him on the under-19 Pelham Panthers travel team.
“It is really about him maturing and developing his body next. His game is certainly there but we have to put some muscle weight on him,” Feor said.
Budgell tries to get to Simcoe twice a week at 6 a.m. to get shots up before school and then he has either a workout or a practice after school. He also gets as much training in as he can get with Niagara Apex Basketball.
All that work has paid off for the 6-foot-4 guard and has made him more confident.
“Before I felt like I had the skillset and most of the things but I wasn’t confident with myself,” he said. “I wasn’t a basketball player growing up so I was kind of new to it all. Then a switched flipped within me and now my work ethic is showing and the reason I am more confident is because of all the work I have put in. I am spending all those hours in the gym.”
That switch went on this past summer.
“Before football started, I was training a lot and I had a lot of time on my hands in the summer. I got in the gym and made sure I was doing all the shots and stuff.”
Budgell quarterbacked the Redcoats varsity football team to an undefeated season and a Niagara Region High School Athletic Association Tier 2 title and he and teammates, Lucas Landry, Nathan Vander Meer, Marshall Sumbler and Makai Chambers, were late arrivals to basketball.
“We missed a lot. We ended football at the beginning of November and we had two weeks before our first game to practice. It was a very hectic two weeks but we practised hard and I credit that to where we are now.”
Basketball is a labour of love for Budgell.
“Every time I get a basketball in my hands it brings a smile to my face and I am never bored of it no matter how much basketball I am playing. I enjoy every second of it and my dad (Geoff) was a basketball player too. He always pushed me in that direction and really helps with my game. He gives me pointers and when I make mistakes, he lets me know and I feel that helps me.”
The Budgell name is not synonymous with the Standard tournament but it is an important part of the history of the Tribune tournament. Budgell’s late grandfather, Lloyd Budgell, a Grand Falls, Nfld., native, had a general law practice before being appointed as a family court judge in 1970. He presided over family and youth matters for more than three decades until his retirement as Senior Justice, Ontario Court of Justice in 2006. He became the chair of the Tribune tournament in 1986 and served in that capacity until 2000. He stayed on the committee another five years until the tourney’s 50th anniversary in 2005.
The Wolfpack grabbed an early first-quarter lead but the Redcoats rallied to tie the game 12-12 heading into the second quarter. Simcoe then built quarter leads 29-21 and 48-36 before taking change in the final quarter.
“In the first quarter and in the first half we thought that we were still in the game. The first quarter was great, the second quarter was good and in the third in and fourth quarter, Noah turned it up for the other team,” West Niagara coach Rob Bowman said. “He was shooting from 15 feet beyond the arc and draining threes and that will crush any team. I think the boys know they didn’t give up but it was a tough second half to watch for them.”
He believes the Standard tournament was good learning tool for his squad.
“This is the first time whether it was West Niagara or Grimsby or Beamsville that those schools have come together and we made the semifinal. Usually we are a one and done or two and done team so this is a good buildup for the rest of the year. We’ve been tested, they know what they have to do, they see the work that has to be put in and we will see Governor Simcoe in the regular season. They are not going to lay a 30 (30-point win) on us.”
Feor was happy with his team’s performance on offence and defence.
“I thought we came out with defensive intensity and offensively we were very efficient. We got our sets in and we ran a very clean game.”
The Redcoats were particularly good in the second half.
“We were making a few silly errors early on, either a single defensive lapse that would give up a three or a sloppy turnover but we cleaned up the turnovers and small errors in the second half.”
Simcoe now head to the Standard final looking for its first championship since 2010. The last time the Redcoats played in the final was in Feor’s first year of coaching Simcoe in the early 2010s. That version of the Redcoats lost by three points to a Pat Pilato-led Saint Francis team.
“It’s great to be back again and going up against Saint Francis again,” he said.
Budgell is looking forward to the final.
“We have to battle and hustle. We are pretty small and don’t have a lot of basketball players on our team. We have to be diving on the floor for rebounds, playing hard and playing as a team,” he said. “If we play as a team, we can be the best team in the whole Niagara region.”
STATS PACK
Redcoats Wolfpack
Cat’s Caboose Players of the Game: Noah Budgell of Simcoe and Scott D’Cunha of West Niagara.
For the Governor Simcoe Redcoats: Noah Budgell 43; Reid Oakes 12; Ari Steenhuis 10; Anderson Blanchard 3; Nate Sweeney 2.
For the West Niagara Wolfpack: Scott D’Cunha 12; Parker Weston-Thwaites 7; Julian Sobota 7; Chrystian Kyslytsya 7; Trevor McKee 2; Jordan Love 2; Jordan Patrick 2; Owen Bowman 2.
Up next: Governor Simcoe advances to the final Friday at 7:30 p.m. at St. Catharines Collegiate. Admission is $5 for adults and $2 for students. Watch the game on Livestream at https://vimeo.com/event/4772870.
