Redcoats punch ticket to SOSSA
Noah Budgell took matters in to his own hands Wednesday.
The Grade 12 guard poured in 39 points to lead the Governor Simcoe Redcoats past the visiting Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs 65-55 to capture the Niagara High School Athletic Association Zone 4 senior boys AA basketball championship.
Budgell was at his best with the game on the line.
With the score deadlocked at 41-41 after three quarters, Budgell went off in the final eight minutes scoring 17 points, including a trio of buckets from beyond the arc.
Budgell was all smiles after posing for the traditional team photo following the game.
“Yeah, it was a great game,” he said. “It was very fun.”
Budgell only had three points in the third quarter as the Bulldogs took as much as a seven-point lead at one point.
“You know, I started the third off a little,” he said. “My teammates, they let me shoot all the shots I want and they don’t get mad at me when I shoot, so I know I’m going to make them (shots) if I can keep shooting. So that was just the goal, just keep shooting the ball.”
Redcoats coach Shaun Feor has seen this kind of performance from Budgell on countless occasions.
“Arguably, I think he’s the best player in this region to be honest with you,” Feor said. “We’re so blessed and lucky to have him as part of our program. And as a coach, he’s a great kid off the floor. He puts the work in and any success that he has is well earned. He works his butt off.”
As impressive as Budgell’s outburst was, it was Simcoe’s work at the other end of the court that also helped turn the tide.
“The difference was the defence,” Budgell said. “I feel like defence brings energy and at the start we weren’t bringing energy, we weren’t playing hard on defence. As soon as we started battling hard, diving on the floor for boards and playing as a team, the momentum switched. I think that was a big difference.”
Feor tipped his cap to the Bulldogs and coaches Youri Mutamba and Bill Mowat.
“We’ve seen them three times prior to this,” Feor said. “Between both coaching staffs and players it’s been like a chess match back and forth all year long. Their coaching staff has done a great job of making adjustments throughout games and fortunately we made a great decision in the third quarter to go to a tight 3-2 zone and we went on an 18-0 run there in the third to the fourth quarter.”
The Redcoats now advance to the Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association (SOSSA) playdowns Thursday, Feb. 20 at Sir Allan MacNab in Hamilton.
“Definitely some nerves, but I’m very excited,” Budgell said. “We’re here to play the best teams, so whoever that may be, whether it’s Saint Francis, St. Paul, we’re going to be ready for them. We’re a team that we don’t care who we play, we’re going to come out and battle no matter who you are so I’m excited for it.”
Feor said SOSSA will be anything but a cakewalk.
“It’s going to be extremely tough,” he said. “The Catholics always send a good representative and Hamilton’s tough. There’s no powder puff games along the way but we’re really looking forward to SOSSA and hopefully making some noise there.”
STATS PACK
Redcoats 65 Bulldogs 55
Cat’s Caboose Player of the Game: Simcoe’s Noah Budgell with 39 points.
Governor Simcoe Redcoats: Budgell 39; Ari Steenhuis 14.
Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs: Drase Charles 18; Seth Jafelice 15; Toheer Sambade 5.
Up next: The Redcoats advance to the SOSSA playdowns Thursday, Feb. 20 at Sir Allan MacNab in Hamilton.
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