Klassen shines for Spartans, Myer edges Lakeshore
Dylan Klassen came up clutch Wednesday to power the Westlane Spartans to a 58-54 victory over the Saint Michael Mustangs in opening-round action from the 68th Annual Welland Tribune Basketball Tournament at E.L. Crossley.
The 18-year-old player scored a team-high 21 points and came up big in the fourth quarter to help the Spartans hold off the Mustangs. Klassen had a steal and score to extend his team’s lead to 53-50 with 2:33 left in the game and then netted the final two points of the game from the free-throw line to put the contest out of reach.
Jeff Klassen, Dylan’s dad and Westlane’s head coach, says his son likes to shoot.
“He’s my son so I am a little hard on him,” he said, with a smile. “He does the majority of the ball-handling for us, he always guards one of their better players and he is our best shooter. He is leading us in scoring this year.”
The Pelham Panthers travel player has no issues playing for his father.
“I like it because I don’t think he favours me over other players. If I am not playing well or if I get angry or something, he is going to get me off the court and let me cool down. He treats me like every other player if not harder because he wants to see me perform better and our team perform better. If I am not playing well, he’s going to sub me off and see if someone else can perform better.”
Like most of Westlane’s starters, he plays heavy minutes.
“I am fine with that but I would love to see the bench players get more minutes, but for now I think it is working out pretty well.”
Dylan Klassen plays a key role on the Spartans.
“It’s just keeping our energy up and keeping everyone focused on the game. When people get upset during the game, it is important to keep everyone together.”
He wants to keep improving as a player.
“It is being more intense on defence and when I get frustrated to not take risky shots.”
Jeff Klassen described Wednesday’s game as a hard-fought win.
“We rode our starters pretty hard and they played a lot of minutes. We went zone for a little bit which we don’t normally do but that mixed it up a bit in the third quarter and got us a bit of a lead. We gave it back in the fourth but the guys keep it together and were able to pull it out in the end.”
He likes the Spartans’ roster this season.
“We are pretty strong, especially our five starters, and Dylan and Ashton (Gidney) had great games today. We lean on them for a lot of our scoring and O’Shane (Hall) we lean on for defence. He was in a little bit of foul trouble but he played really, really well.”
Jeff Klassen would like to see his team go as far as it can in the Tribune tournament.
“I don’t know if Westlane has won a game in this tournament for awhile. I have only been here for two years but I don’t remember them winning for quite some time,” he said. “We are going to be in tough tomorrow with either Myer or Lakeshore Catholic because they are both pretty good teams. We lost to Myer in the regular season already. We were missing one of our guys so hopefully we can play a competitive game tomorrow.”
Dylan Klassen is glad there was no repeat of last year’s Tribune tourney.
“It was great to win the opening game because last year we won by 40 (against Brebeuf in league play) and the next day we played them in the tournament and lost by 20,” he said. “It was good to come out on top and hopefully we can beat Myer and Lakeshore.”
He feels this year’s version of the Spartans is different.
“We have some guys who have been together for multiple years now rather than last year when it was our first year all together. This year we are able to have more chemistry.”
The importance of chemistry can’t be overstated.
“It’s really important. If I am dribbling and give them a certain look, they know whether to set a screen or go back door. I don’t have to call it out so the other team knows what we are doing.”
Saint Michael Mustangs coach Jim Karagiannis lamented a familiar problem this season for the Mustangs, who erased a 12-point, fourth-quarter deficit to tie the game at 50-50 with less than four minutes remaining.
“We have to start earlier. We have a tendency to start the game in the second half,” he said. “We always have a tendency to lose the first four or five minutes.”
Karagiannis liked how the Mustangs battled back in the final quarter.
“They have talent, they have character and they have depth but we have to start earlier. If we start earlier, we can battle with any team,”
STATS PACK
Spartans 58 Mustangs 54
Policella Homes Players of the Game: Westlane’s Dylan Klassen and Saint Michael’s Arwin China.
For the Westlane Spartans: Dylan Klassen 21; Ashton Gidney 20; Noah Del Mundo 8; O’Shane Hall 8; Jacob Jacks 2.
For the Saint Michael Mustangs: Hagen Generao 13; Arwin Chima 11; Nick Karagiannis 10; Matthew Lim 7; Jessiah Bowyer 4; Murtada Mahmoud 3; Nathan Irwin 2; Andrew Karagiannis 2.
MARAUDERS 69 GATORS 66
Isaiah Cosaro-Oteng scored 33 points to lead the A.N. Myer Marauders to a 69-66 victory over the Lakeshore Catholic Gators in opening-round play at the 68th Annual Welland Tribune Basketball Tournament Wednesday held at Centennial.
Cosaro-Oteng was named the Policella Homes Player of the Game for Myer and Willy Kibowa was the recipient for Lakeshore Catholic.
Also scoring for Myer were: Noah Walters 13; Ryker Cain 12; Tanner Smith 5; Suvan Gilotra 3; Denis Duzgan 2; Jonas Kpanabom 2; Caleb Elysee 2.
Netting points for Lakeshore Catholic were: Willy Kibowa 24; Matthew Williams 16; Simon Reid 10; Blake McIvor 9; Oliver Micah 3.
