Flyers bring home antique bronze
The Eden Flyers are more than satisfied to be the fourth best team in Ontario.
The Flyers came home with a medal from the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations AAA boys basketball championships, and although it wasn’t the preferred colour of gold, there were no complaints.
The Flyers dropped a heartbreaking 56-54 decision to the Holy Names Knights of Windsor in the bronze medal game Wednesday night at Saltfleet District High School in Stoney Creek.
The antique bronze is the first medal for Eden boys basketball in their second trip to OFSSA.
“This is the greatest basketball season an Eden team has ever had,” Flyers coach Jonathon Thorpe said while choking back his emotions. “We wanted to win this game of course but I couldn’t be prouder.”
Flyers guard Luke Midgley echoed his coach’s sentiments.
“I’m proud of this squad,” the 17-year-old, Grade 12 student said. “We came in as the 12th seed. We beat this team earlier in the tournament, that’s just how OFSAA basketball works. We’re all great teams here, we’re all elite level. You just have to play your hardest.”
Fellow Flyers guard Chad Thorpe said the Flyers rallied around the seeding.
“There’s no words to be said, really. Coming here as the 12 seed, we were underdogs and wanted to prove everyone wrong,” he said. “We came out as the fourth-place medalist. It’s not what we wanted but it’s an accomplishment in itself.”
The loss ends a memorable season and impressive two-year run for the Flyers.
“This core, the guys who have played the last two years, have played in two Standard finals, two Tribune finals, won the biggest tournament in Kitchener-Waterloo and gone to OFSAA twice and now they are OFSAA medalists to cap it off,” Jonathon Thorpe said. “The two-year run, there’s not too many teams that can have that resume.”
The Flyers have 10 Grade 12 players on their roster.
“This is a group that means a lot to me,” Jonathon Thorpe added. “I coach a bunch of them in travel and obviously it’s the last year I’m going to have a son at Eden. It’s been seven years of coaching a son, so that’s going to be tough as well.”
Midgley said the Flyers are more than just a team.
“I’ve been with these guys for eight or nine years now and we’re more than just teammates — we’re brothers,” he said.
Chad Thorpe will miss the camaraderie.
“Played with these guys for a long time and it’s the way we move the ball, the way we trust each other. The trust that we have in each other, there’s no other team that I’ve played on that’s like that,” he said.
The Flyers fell behind 21-6 after one quarter and 33-20 at the half before making switching to a two-three zone in the second half which frustrated the Knights.
Eden shaved the lead down to 42-36 after three and finally tied the score at 54-54 with just under two minutes to play. The Knights went up by two on a pair of free throws with 1:16 remaining. The Flyers got the ball back with 17 seconds to go but a pair of shots missed the target.
Chad Thorpe led the Flyers with 17 while Kai Schatz added 16 and Midgley 13.
The Flyers opened OFSAA with a 72-61 victory over second-seeded Holy Names.
Eden trailed 21-16 after one quarter but then proceeded to build quarter leads of 42-39 and 58-45.
“We played an amazing game start to finish. Midgley hit a three at the end of the second quarter to put us up by three going into half and we didn’t give the lead up after that,” Jonathon Thorpe said.
Top performers for the Flyers were: Midgley with 18 points and four assists; Chad Thorpe with 16 points and five steals; Dylan Durlov with 14 points and five assists; Kai Schatz with 13 points and eight rebounds; and, Luke Johnson with nine points and eight boards.
Eden then advanced to the quarter-finals with a 61-52 triumph over 15th-seeded Cameron Heights.
Eden built quarter leads of 11-9, 32-17 and 40-37 to record the victory.
“We played a big physical team who shot the ball very well in the second half. They really keyed in on Chad in the second half trying to keep the ball out of his hands as much as possible so other guys needed to step up,” Thorpe said. “Kai was huge for us in the second half and Dylan hit a big three down the stretch that gave us some much needed breathing room.”
Top scorers for Eden were Schatz 22, Midgley 11, Thorpe 10, Durlov 8 and Johnson 7.
Eden then advanced to the semifinals with a 54-50 win against seventh-seeded A.B. Lucas.
A.B. Lucas had quarter leads of 19-12, 36-29 and 42-40 before the Flyers rallied for the triumph.
“Yesterday (Tuesday) both games were very physical and in both games Chad was face guarded in an attempt to take him out of the game. In the first game yesterday it was for the second half and for the quarter-final it was for the entire game. But the other guys stepped up and in particular Kai had back to back 20-plus point games,” Jonathon Thorpe said. “Luke Johnson also did an amazing job defensively against their best player, Raeguon Pryce. He still scored 26 points but he had to work hard for those and he did not shoot a high percentage which took some of the other guys out of the flow of the game.”
Top scorers for the Flyers were Schatz 23, Johnson 11, Thorpe 8 and Midgley 6.
In the semifinal against Saltfleet, the Flyers held quarter leads of 20-7, 32-28 and 48-43 before Saltlfeet came storming back for the win.
“We have nothing to hang our heads about. The guys played great. Saltfleet hit a couple tough shots and they outsized us so as we got tired they grabbed some important boards down the stretch. That ended up being the difference.”
Leading scorers for the Flyers in the semifinals were Midgley 17, Schatz 10, Thorpe 10, Johnston 8 and Durlov 6.
With files from Bernie Puchalski
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