Phoenix back on top at Standard tourney
No one was surprised to see Andrew Ens holding the MVP trophy Friday night at the conclusion of the championship game of the 60th Annual Standard High School Basketball Tournament at St. Catharines Collegiate.
The Grade 11 point guard poured in 27 points to lead the top-seeded Saint Francis Phoenix to a 60-50 victory over the second-seeded Eden Flyers.
“The kid is special and I have been fortunate to be able to watch him develop,” Saint Francis head coach Jon Marcheterre said. “The kid makes plays and I don’t know if I have ever had a kid who could will his way to the basket or a hit a shot the way he does. He loves these moments and he has been waiting for this moment for a long time. For him, this is really big. It was the last thing he had to knock off on a list and we will see what the future holds for him. He is one heck of a player and I am confident he will be playing at the next level.”
The 5-foot-10 agreed a Standard title and MVP trophy were definitely at the top of his bucket list.
“We won OFSAA (Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations) last year and this is one thing I haven’t won, We lost last year and obviously COVID (cancelled two tournaments) and we got to win it this year,” he said.
The history of the tournament was not lost on Ens.
“It’s 60 years and there are so many names who have come through here, so many good players and icons here. It is good to put my name in the history books.”
Ens’ and Phoenix’s spot in said history books looked a little in doubt as the Phoenix almost coughed up a big lead.
“We expected them to fight back and they did. They are a tough team. They went to OFSAA last year and made the finals at The Standard last year. We knew it was going to be a battle. They fought back but we stood our ground.”
When the final buzzer sounded, Ens and his teammates celebrated with abandon.
“It was joy. This it the thing I wanted to win since last year after losing to them. It’s good to beat them.”
Eden smoked Saint Francis in last year’s semifinals.
“That was in my head, I can’t lie,” Ens said. “They kicked our butts and they deserved that one. But this year we got it.”
Friday’s game looked like it was going to be a cakewalk for the Phoenix as they led 15-3 early and 33-19 at the half. Eden came out flying in the third quarter and went into the final quarter trailing 39-34.
After St. Francis opened the quarter with a three to grab a 42-34 lead, Eden went on an 11-0 run to take a 45-42 advantage. St. Francis’ Elijah Quissua hit one of his five threes in the game to set the stage for a frantic final three and a half minutes that featured a 6-0 St. Francis run in the final two minutes to give the Phoenix a lead they would not relinquish. St. Francis scored the final seven points of the game to produce a final score that wasn’t a true reflection of how close the game was in front of a packed house at Collegiate.
“Eden played really well and that is what happened in the second half. They are a very good team and they (Saint Francis) are kids and they get a little excited and a little full of themselves maybe and they kind of took their foot of the gas,” Marcheterre said. “But Eden really made things difficult for us in the second half and things that were working for us and the looks that we were getting in the first half and hitting a lot of, weren’t in the second half.”
A lot of it was Eden’s doing.
“We were going to the boards and shooting well and that all changed in the second half,” he said. “Then it came down to making plays and we ended up making one extra one.”
Eden coach Jonathan Thorpe congratulated Saint Francis and marvelled at his squad’s impressive comeback.
“I’m not disappointed so much as I feel bad for the guys because that first half is like a half we’ve never had before. We’ve never not been able to score. To score 19 points is not typically the level we’re playing at,” he said. “I feel bad for them because I know they would want that first half and the proof is in how they played in the second half. They were laying it all out on the court. It’s not like they weren’t trying.”
All that changed as the game went on.
“We made several adjustments going into the second quarter and then the second half a few more things we changed as far as what we were doing offensively. Those things seemed to work a lot better than what we were doing in the first half,” he said. “We’ve got a tournament in Kitchener-Waterloo that we were champions of last year and we’re playing that in a week and we’ve also got the Tribune Tournament we’re excited for. We have a lot to look forward to.”
Marcheterre was thrilled to be back as Standard champion after a three-year-absence, two years because of COVID and last year getting beat out by Eden.
“It is a big point of pride for our school to put a Standard championship banner on our wall. It means a lot to our school and we were well-represented in the crowd as well. We are a tiny school of 500 or so kids and it is a special event for our school.”
As usual, the atmosphere of Standard championship night at the Collegiate was electric.
“You can’t beat the atmosphere Friday night at Collegiate. It is the most exciting,” Marcheterre said. “I have been fortunate to coach in OFSAA gold medal games and they are stressful and pretty electric too but you don’t have that much of your own fans’ support. It is loud because there are a lot of people cheering but it was not like tonight. Tonight everybody had a horse in the race and they were vocal.”
Marcheterre was thrilled for his squad.
“It is so much fun and with this year being the 60th the elements of the tradition were really laid out and we talked about it with the boys, just what it means to be a part of it. For them to be able to put their name alongside the names of other guys they look at as legends at Saint Francis is great.”
Saint Francis advanced to the final by defeating St. Catharines Collegiate 85-19, Blessed Trinity 74-52 and Denis Morris 67-42.
Eden advanced to the final by knocking off Holy Cross 76-45, Greater Fort Erie 82-39 and Sir Winston Churchill 63-42.
Joining Ens on the First All-Star Team were: Eden’s Luke Johnson, who averaged 10.5 points per game in the tournament, including 23 in the championship game; Eden’s Chad Thorpe who averaged 18.8 points per game in the tournament, including in the 10 championship game; Eden’s Kai Schatz, who averaged 15.3 points per game in the tournament, including in the 15 championship game; and, St. Francis’ Elijah Quissua who averaged 7.5 points per game in the tournament and hit five big threes in the championship game.
Named to the Second All-Star Team were: St. Francis’ Jack Ciocca, who averaged 10.2 points per game in the tournament, including 10 in the championship game; Ridley College’s Felix Hadzic who averaged 17.8 points per game in the tournament, including 23 in the consolation final; Smithville Christian’s Jeremy Talsma, who averaged 20.3 points per game in the tournament, including 28 in the consolation final; Denis Morris’ Joshua Kaufman, who helped his team reach the championship semifinals by averaging 20.3 points per game in the tournament; and, Sir Winston Churchill’s Will McAlpine, who helped his team reach the championship semifinals by averaging 15 points per game in the tournament.
STATS PACK
Phoenix 60 Flyers 50
Cat’s Caboose Player of the Game: St. Francis’ Andrew Ens with a game-high 27 points.
Boston Pizza Player of the Game: Eden’s Luke Johnson with a team-high 23 points.
For the Saint Francis Phoenix: Ens 27; Elijah Quissua 15; Jack Ciocca 10; Awab Ali 3; Austin Hinds 3; Jakob Labanowicz 2.
For the Eden Flyers: Johnson 23; Kai Schatz 15; Chad Thorpe 10; Luke Midgley 2.
Replay: Fridays’s final can be watched at https://livestream.com/accounts/15502389/60thstandard
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