Irish back on top with 41st Tribune championship
All Mark Gallagher needed to feel better was a championship.
The head coach of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish was batting the flu bug all week, but was feeling much healthier Saturday night following a championship effort from his club.
The Fighting Irish held off the Governor Simcoe Redcoats 70-55 in the championship final of the 64th Annual Welland Tribune Basketball Tournament played before a packed house at Notre Dame.
The championship is the 41st tournament title in school history.
“I’m so happy for the kids,” Gallagher said, deflecting any talk about himself. “This is a unique group. Last year was an older group and this is sort of a new group. A lot of the key players are either very young, or inexperienced.”
The championship victory came on the heels of a draining overtime win in the semifinals versus E.L. Crossley Friday night.
“I’m not sure any of us could have survived overtime again like last (Friday) night,” Gallagher said. “Last year was worse with the weather. We played the semifinal Saturday morning and then played the second game at night.
“The kids were well rested. We talked to them about going home and taking care of their bodies.”
The Fighting Irish led from start to finish, a brief 48-47 deficit in the fourth quarter notwithstanding.
“They were so excited about playing,” Gallagher said. “I think you saw that early. We were a little rusty at times but once we settled down, I don’t think the kids ever thought we would lose or be in trouble. They were very confident if we do the things we do, we would be very good.”
Irish centre Shammar Campbell, who was on last year’s squad which lost in the final to Centennial, was all smiles as he discussed the difference in feeling this year versus last.
“It feels a lot better,” said Campbell, who led Notre Dame with 22 points. “I got a lot of energy from my teammates because I was down on myself. They told me not to give up and that’s what I did. They really helped me and I helped them.
“There was no doubt at all. We were confident in ourselves today and our coach told us, even if we lose, lose fighting.”
The final score was not indicative of how close the game was up until the final few minutes.
Notre Dame led 14-13 after one quarter, 27-24 at the half and 44-43 after three quarters. The Irish built a 56-50 lead with four minutes to play, then put the game away outscoring Simcoe 14-5 down the stretch.
“I think we just ran out of gas. We have a bit of a shorter bench,” Simcoe coach Shaun Feor said. “I don’t think we exactly played our game today. The ball was really stagnant, especially in the first half. No one was really attacking the rim, but give credit to Notre Dame, they played a great defence.”
Feor admitted it was a tough task to play in enemy territory before a crazy crowd.
“They have great fans, and I appreciate the Simcoe support as well. It’s a very tough gym to play in for sure.”
Feor is confident the Redcoats can build on the experience.
“We’re young and I already know we have a few guys coming back for 12B so our team is going to look pretty close to same next year to what it is this year,” he said. “I told the boys not to hang their heads, but to use this as motivation for next year.”
Mountainview Homes Players of the Game: Notre Dame’s Shammar Campbell and Governor Simcoe’s Darren Johnston.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish: Campbell 22; Andrew Zezella 16; David Jones 13; Brandon Markowski 9; Anthony Cimino 7; Jesse Raso 3.
Governor Simcoe Redcoats: Johnston 19; Max Grant 16; Deryck Burke 9; Andrew Scott 6; Cal Andersen 3; Mason MacEachern 2.
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