Flyers return to Standard final
Led by 12B point guard Chad Thorpe, the Eden Flyers defeated the defending champion Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs 63-42 at Ridley College Thursday night to advance to the championship game of the 60 Annual Standard High School Basketball Tournament.
“He had a bit of a rough game from the foul line tonight and I haven’t seen everybody play but I don’t know if there is a guy who can impact a game both offensively and defensively as much as he can,” Eden head coach Jonathon Thorpe said. “He gets his hands on so many balls. They weren’t turnovers but there were so many deflections he got at the top of our press. He is a menace defensively and offensively the shots didn’t necessarily fall for him today but he can easily put up 20-25 points on any night. You know you are going to get 100 per cent effort even single night that he is on the court.”
He is also an excellent leader.
“You know he is going to hold every single guy accountable. There were multiple times during the game where he turned to the guys and said, ‘This isn’t good enough. Let’s step it up,’ ” Jonathon Thorpe said.
The 6-foot-3 guard is glad to be back for one more year of Flyer basketball.
“I came back for academic reasons to take biology but obviously I wanted to come and have a successful season for basketball,” he said. “I thought we had a pretty successful season last year but we came up a bit short of our goal. I wanted to come back and go for that same goal this year.”
The Flyers made it to the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations AAA championships last year before losing in the quarter-finals.
It left the 18-year-old wanting more.
“We came up short of our goal last year and that is alright but it obviously sucked and we wanted to do better. That is the unfinished business I want to take care of this year.”
Winning a Standard championship would also be a nice way to go out.
“I can’t express how important it is and it is a huge goal that I have always wanted to complete in all of my years of high school,” Chad Thorpe said. “It would be great for the school and great for the basketball program to get a significant tournament win in Niagara and clarify ourselves as top dogs.”
Jonathon Thorpe was happy with Thursday’s win but didn’t think it was his team’s best effort.
“It is a bit of a character win in that we didn’t shoot the ball as well as we could have and our offence wasn’t flowing the way you would normally see it flow but we still put up a bunch of points. We grinded out a win.”
He feels his team has gotten better as the Standard tournament has moved on.
“It is still early. This was our fifth game of the season and we have tons of growth yet to happen.”
Eden is heading to the Standard final for the second straight year after losing to Churchill in 2022.
“It is fun to be back, of course, and the guys are absolutely excited to be there again. But we have work to do. It’s not just about being there,” Jonathon Thorpe said.
This year’s version of the Flyers is different than last year’s.
“Last year we had some high-end individual talent but this team’s starting five might be the most cohesive unit I have ever had. I have had very talented players but I don’t think I have ever had a full five that looks this good this early in the season and works as well together as they do,” he said. “I am really excited about the way this season could go.”
The Bulldogs were in trouble early, falling behind 15-2 to open the game before rallying to cut the lead to 22-14 at the end of the first quarter. They whittled the lead further to 36-29 at the half but a 10-0 Eden run to open the second half sealed Churchill’s fate. The Flyers went in the final quarter up 55-37 and were never threatened.
“We played pretty well other than those first couple of minutes. That was a bit of a shock and I think there were a lot of jitters,” Churchill head coach Martin Cook said. “We are a relatively new team and it just took us a little while to get going. I was really happy with how we clawed back. Our man to man defence worked well. We had a sold defensive plan coming in and for the most part I was happy with it.”
Cook tipped his cap to Eden’s defence.
“Eden runs a great zone. They’ve got a lot of pressure, a lot of length and they are tough to contend with. They are a good team.”
The Bulldogs fought hard until the end.
“I am very pleased and I see some really good signs with this team,” Cook said. “We have a long way to go and a lot of work but we have tough, scrappy kids and I think we will get to the point where we can compete with anybody.”
STATS PACK
Flyers 63 Bulldogs 42
Cat’s Caboose Player of the Game: Eden’s Chad Thorpe with a game-high 21 points.
Boston Pizza Player of the Game: Churchill’s Jared Cook with a team-high 12 points.
For the Eden Flyers: Thorpe 21; Kai Schatz 16; Dylan Durlov 12; Luke Midgley 10; Luke Johnson 4.
For the Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs: Cook 12; Matteo Scaglione 9; Danial Nunez 6; Will McAlpine 6; Owen Cuthbert 5; Sawyer Neufeld 2; Owen Scott 2.
Up next: Eden advances to the championship game Friday at 7:45 p.m. at St. Catharines Collegiate against Saint Francis. Games will be live streamed at https://livestream.com/accounts/15502389/60thstandard .
