Phoenix and Bulldogs punch tickets to championship semifinals

Awab Ali is the latest in a long line of Grade 10 players who have made an impact with the Saint Francis Phoenix senior boys basketball team.

On Tuesday night in his home gym, the 6-foot-3 forward scored 17 points to help the Phoenix record a 74-52 victory over the Blessed Trinity Thunder in the championship quarter-finals of the 60th Annual Standard High School Basketball Tournament.

Ali started the year with the junior team before being called up to play at the senior level.

“Partly because of their depth — they have an incredible junior team — and because we had a couple of injuries and lacked a little bit of size, Awab came up to give us a little bit of support,” Phoenix head coach Jon Marcheterre said. “But he’s ready for senior and offers more of an inside presence than what we had, certainly off the bench while Tom Goodwin is out with an injury.”

Ali has looked right at home.

“He is doing well and adjusting well to senior but there’s few things we are being conscious of with him in terms of what he is aware of and not,” he said. “He competes on the boards, he finishes a ton inside in that dunker spot and he is going to be a big player for us.”

The 15-year-old was originally a soccer player and didn’t start playing basketball until Grade 9.

“I moved to a new area of St. Catharines where we had a basketball court outside and I would always play together with Nawab and Abu Kigab. That’s where I really fell in love with the sport.”

Abu, a former junior national team and NCAA Division 1 player, helped in Ali’s development.

“Abu really trained me last year when he came back from Boise State. He and Nawaf really helped my game.”

Getting a chance to train with Abu was a great experience.

“I am so thankful for having the opportunity to have him train me.”

Ali was first called up to the senior team to play in the Mike Sullivan tournament because some of the senior players were away at a volleyball tournament.

“They only had two or three players on the bench and they called me up and I was like OK. Let me go out there and help them. They really liked my game and they told me I was staying for the final.”

He was thrilled to play senior ball and was thankful for all the help he received from junior coach Rich Alderson.

“He helped me to develop to get to the point where I am at senior.”

Playing senior was a big adjustment.

“It was the physicality and there’s also a lot more high IQ players who I have to play better defence on and elevate my game a lot more.”

He knows what he needs to work on to be even better at the senior level.

“I personally think it is defence because at Saint Francis we are defence first. I really want to work on my defence and rebounding so I can help the team win.”

The Phoenix roared out to a 25-7 first-quarter lead against the Thunder Tuesday and never looked back.

“Our focus is to get out early to a comfortable lead as quick as we can and then try to use some of the advantage we have of playing at home. We try to hang on to the lead and make the environment tough for them,” Marcheterre said.

The Phoenix were able to showcase their depth and had nine players hit the scoresheet, including five with six or more points.

“That is why I think we can be better than what we were last year because of the depth that we have,” he said. “Certainly at the guard position we have a lot of depth and we are able to roll quite a few guys who bring out a similar level of compete and talent.”

Blessed Trinity could never recover from the big first-quarter deficit.

“We got down early, then we kind of stopped the bleeding and it was back and forth for a good eight minutes,” BT head coach Michael Hendrickse said. “The guys really stepped up their defence which was encouraging to see but it’s hard to come back when you get down 15 at the onset. Then Saint Francis just shot the ball so well. It is hard when you play really good defence and they kick it out and hit that contested three. It’s demoralizing but the guys have a lot to be proud of. This is the beginning of our season and we have lots of time to fix some of those glaring errors and we can make this game more competitive in the future.”

Overall Hendrickse was pleased with how hard his team worked.

“Execution-wise we have a lot to work on but the effort is there and I think in a couple of weeks we will be better.”

STATS PACK

Phoenix 74 Thunder 52

Cat’s Caboose Player of the Game: Saint Francis’ Trent Dobson with 10 points.

Boston Pizza Player of the Game: Blessed Trinity’s Caleb Olomide with eight points.

For the Saint Francis Phoenix: Andrew Ens 19, Awab Ali 17, Dobson 10, Farouk Akasha 9, Elijah Quissua 6, Nawaf Kigab 4, Jakob Labanowicz 3, Jack Ciocca 3, Austin Hinds 2, and Ian Allas 2.

For the Blessed Trinity Thunder: Michael Akinpetide 23, Olomide 8, Matteo Villella 5, Tre’von Higgins 4, Antonio Plesa 4, Jamie Coldwell 4, Matteo Pesut 2, Tony Mouzaya 2.

BULLDOGS 57 REDCOATS 34

Will McAlpine netted 14 points to lead the third-seeded Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs to a 57-34 victory over the 11th-seeded Governor Simcoe Redcoats in Standard championship quarter-final action Tuesday at Churchill.

Also scoring for the Bulldogs were Jared Cook 11, Danial Nunez 8, Owen Cuthbert 5, Matteo Scaglione 5, Sawyer Neufeld 4, Owen Scott 3, Noah O’Halloran-Rose 3, Brandon Plachy 2 and Victor Obanure 2.

Nunez was named the Cat’s Caboose Player of the Game.

Scoring for the Redcoats were Noah Budgell 14, Anderson Blanchard 6, Noah Mills 6, Lochlan Belliveau 5, Austin Haggarty 2 and Sutter Pilon 1.

Pilon was named the Boston Pizza Player of the Game.