June 24 local sports report: Niagara Men’s Golf Tour: GAO golf; Niagara Tigers basketball: Niagara College seeks hall of fame nominations
Rockway Vineyard’s Mark Wiebe carded a three under par 34-35-69 at Twenty Valley to win the second stop on the Niagara Men’s Golf Tour.
Rounding out the top 10 were: Rockway Vineyard’s Jeffry Janz (36-38-74) and Tim Dundas (34-40-74); Twenty Valley’s John Hickson (35-40-75); Rockway Vineyard’s Derek Divok (38-36-74) and Kham Vong (37-39-76); Twenty Valley’s Bill Lipsett (36-40-76); Dundas’ Marc Silvestri (35-41-76); public player Drew Athoe (38-39-77); Riverview’s Ken Millin (38-39-77); and, Twenty Valley’s Jason Burgess (35-42-77).
Rockway Vineyards; Derek Divok won the first stop on the tour at Willow Valley with a 37-35-72 score. He won by two strokes.
Next tournament is July 14 at Whirlpool.
GOLF ONTARIO NEWS
Lookout Point’s Ryan Duck fired rounds of 73, 78 and 73 to place 30th at Ontario Men’s Mid-Amateur held at the Pointe West Golf Course in Amherstburg.
Other locals in the field were: Fenwick’s Adam Briggs (73-75-78=226), tied for 35th; and, former St. Catharines resident Mike Kray (75-78-86=239), along in 64th spot.
NIAGARA TIGERS BASKETBALL
The Niagara Tigers’ Grade 9, 10, and 11 basketball teams performed well at the Nike Signature League playoffs in Brampton.
The Grade 9 team, which went winless in the regular portion of the schedule, fell 68-52 to the high-flying Windsor Junior Lancers in the first round.
“The Grade 9 team in addition to being a little undersized definitely lacked the experience to compete with the level of talent in this league in the early sessions but showed tremendous growth with each weekend session,” coach Pat Sullivan said.
“In the beginning, they were easily rattled and disrupted with full court-pressure, but in the playoffs were actually able to force Windsor to adjust to a secondary defence.”
The players and coaches were disappointed at failing to win a game, but the level of growth and improvement is obvious both in the scores of the later games and in the confidence level of the players.
The third-place Grade 10 defeated IEM of Markham in the quarter finals in convincing fashion before falling 61-51 in the semifinals to DC United of Durham.
“We felt we were capable of winning this division and are excited about the fact that we were able to have so much success in a very talented group of teams,” Sullivan said. “This was a provincial championship-calibre field and to have as much success as we did speaks volumes about the level of talent in Niagara and how hard the kids worked to get better.”
Niagara was hurt by foul trouble in the semifinal game.
“This group has a ton of potential which we hope to realize when we head to Indianapolis for the Adidas Invitational in July and the CNIT two weeks later,” he said.
The Grade 11 team, which finished fifth out of 11 teams in an extremely competitive division, opened the playoffs with a win over Ottawa Next Level, thanks to a 26-0 run. In the semifinals, the Tigers lost 60-55 to the Gloucester Wolverines, the provincial under-17 champions.
“This division featured three or four guys that were playing for Canada in the FIBA world championships,” Sullivan said. “For our guys to have that type of experience and competition leads to tremendous growth.”
The seminal was highlighted by defensive toughness and well-executed and selfless offence.
“Our kids made a name for themselves, for sure, with their play throughout,” he said. “Most of these guys have been with us for two years for now and we certainly feel they have made major strides in many facets of the game.”
NIAGARA COLLEGE SEEKING HALL OF FAME NOMINATIONS
Niagara College Athletics is seeking nominations for the 2019 Knights Hall of Fame.
The deadline for nominations is July 31 with inductees being announced in October.
The four classes of induction into the hall of fame are athletes, teams, coaches and builders.
Nominees must have been either a part-time or full-time member of the Niagara College Department of Athletics and Recreation and/or a friend of Niagara College Athletics and Recreation for a minimum period of one year.
All forms should be completed in full, and submitted to Michele O’Keefe, Director of Athletics, and Ray Sarkis, Intercollegiate Coordinator.
Nomination form and Hall of Fame Policies and Procedures can be found here.
