Reese is a key piece

Centennial’s Reese Radobenko drives to the basket versus the St. Catharines Collegiate Saints in opening-round action at the 57th Annual Standard High School Basketball Tournament.

Reese Radobenko did it all for the Centennial Cougars senior boys basketball team Monday afternoon.

Playing against the St. Catharines Collegiate Saints in the opening round of the 57th Annual Standard High School Basketball Tournament, the 5-foot-11 guard poured in 31 points while adding 14 rebounds, six steals, four assists and two blocked shots as the Cougars prevailed 57-45.

“He is the heart of this team,” Centennial head coach Craig Maltais said. “He works hard, he leads by example and when we weren’t getting rebounds, I called a timeout to make sure we were boxing out.

“He really picked it up from there.”

Maltais had already seen several big games from Radobenko.

“It’s dedication. He’s in the gym all the time working out on the court and it has shown over the last three years,” he said. “It’s great to see him have performances like this.”

The 17-year-old came back for his 12B year for one more year of Cougar basketball.

“It was pretty much basketball,” he said.”It was to get another year of experience and get better.”

With Centennial losing a number of key players to graduation, including Connor Joliffe and Jacob Bray, and Kennan Larmand transferring to the Ridley College prep program, Radobenko stills like the makeup of his team.

“There were lot of guys that it hurt to lose, but we have a lot of young guys who are ready to play.”

As a 12B veteran on the team, he knows he is needed to do a lot more this season.

“I’m comfortable with that,” he said. “I had that role with my rep team too last year.”

Radobenko is heading to Brock next fall and would love to play basketball at the next level.

“I have to keep working hard and get more accustomed to having pressure on me.”

He’s not guaranteeing 14 rebounds every night in his new role.

“It was just hustle,” he said, of Monday’s board bonanza. “It’s playing the game over the years and knowing where the ball is going to go.”

The Saints, who played second-seeded Governor Simcoe tough in a league game last week, hung around for much of Monday’s game.

“Our team got a little bit ahead of itself and just trying to make things happen that just weren’t there,” Collegiate coach Adria Campbell said. “They weren’t seeing the court overall as they were in the first half.

“In the first half, they were really playing their game and then they were pulled into playing the other team’s game.”

Collegiate continues to exhibit lots of early-season potential.

“It’s slowing it down at the right times and speeding up at the right times and a little more thinking,” Campbell said. “Also, what we have been telling them is to not settle for the first shot.”

The game wasn’t a typical stroll in the park for a top four seed in the first round of the Standard tournament.

“They were a physical team, they hustled really hard and they got some offensive rebounds,” Maltais said. “We had to do a better job of boxing out and that is something we need to work on but playing a team like that, you have to show some heart sometimes and you have to use your size and speed to get the win.”

REDS 46 RAIDERS 40

Noah Honsberger poured in 25 points to power the fourth-ranked Denis Morris Reds to a hard-fought 46-40 victory over the Holy Cross Raiders Monday in the opening-round action at the 57th Annual Standard High School Basketball Tournament.

Also scoring for the Reds, who had a 35-15 lead at one point during the game, were Michael Conlon (13), Michael Cassidy (4) and Zubeer Liban (3).

Top scorers for Holy Cross were Adrian Waszak (10), Isaiah Amio (8), Reuben Eshuis (6) and Tinashe Dandato (2). A total of 14 points was unaccounted for on the game sheet.

STATS PACK

Cougars 57 Saints 45

No Limit Performance/Kully’s Players of the Game: Centennial’s Reese Radobenko with 31 points and Collegiate’s Tykree Llewellyn with 18 points.

For the Centennial Cougars: Radobenko 31; Nick Yioldassis 7; Jack Halladay 6; Jackson McNeil 6; Ryan Stark 3; Jorden Brewster 3; Anthony Perna 1.

For the St. Catharines Collegiate Saints: Llewellyn 18; Jerrell Plumadore 10; Clayton Thomas-Harris 9; Joseph Waterman 8.