Eagles soar to Classic title
Saint Alfred’s boys basketball coach Victoria Wright was more than a little emotional after her Eagles team recorded a narrow 23-21 victory over the Saint Peter’s Panthers in the championship game of the Niagara Classic Invitational Elementary Basketball Tournament Thursday at Saint Francis.
“I think I am going to get emotional again,” she said after the game. “Saint Alfred’s hasn’t been in the finals or in this position for years and I always feel that we are very, very close but not quite there.”
Things were different for the Eagles in 2024.
“Our goal was to make it to Tuesday and then we made it so we said, ‘Let’s make it to Wednesday.’ And then we got to Wednesday and it was beyond belief. It was ‘Now we are going and now we are in’ and honestly we just have a lot of heart. Coaching with my son, Carter (Stoutenburg), it has been an awesome start to the season.”
Only two players on Saint Alfred’s squad play organized sports.
“It was all of them trying out for the first time, some of them new to Canada and some of them didn’t even have basketball shoes,” she said. “It has just been an amazing journey and very cool.”
Because Saint Alfred’s and Saint Peter’s had the same coloured jerseys, Saint Alfred’s wore Saint Francis uniforms. That was fitting because Stoutenburg played for the Phoenix.
“He was on the team and a lot of the coaching they did transpired through him and we put it in play,” Wright said.
Saint Peter’s coach Jill Millar was happy with her team’s performance in the Classic.
“They came together and they played as a team. I only have a few Grade 8s and a great group of Grade 7s who have come together. They all played amazing and I really relied on Landon (Roulston) as my captain and I have co-captain Connor (Clutterbuck) and they all left it all out there. Their athleticism got us through the week.”
She was glad to see the tournament return after a lengthy absence.
“My boys played high school basketball and to watch this tournament come back, I know this is going to inspire the kids to hopefully play high school basketball.”
The game was tied 6-6 after one quarter and Saint Alfred’s led 9-8 at the half and 19-14 after three quarters. The Panthers cut the lead to 23-21 with 38.6 seconds let in the game but that is as close as they would get.
Scoring for the Eagles were Gabe Santos with 16, Gavin James with four and Ali Alsoudi with two. Four points were not accounted for on the gamesheet. Santos was named his team’s player of the game. Other members of the championship team were Landon Hoven, D’Angelo Orr, Julian Hart, Luis Garcia Aragon, Juan Reyes, Elijah Aquino and Skylar Roy.
Scoring for the Panthers were Landon Roulston with 10, Connor Clutterbuck with five, Chidubem Ilo with four and Lucas Mlotstyger with two. Roulston was named his team’s player of the game. Other members of the team were Owen Davies, Matthew Roach, Luka Kausmovic, Jackson Farkas, Dami Oladipo and Nolan Gray.
