Standard Tournament consolation roundup: Cougars, Bulldogs, Saints, Navs advance
Nick Yioldassis set the tone early for the Centennial Cougars Tuesday night.
The 17-year-old, Grade 12B student drained a three-pointer directly off the opening tip-off as the Cougars jumped out to an early lead and then held on to defeat the Lakeshore Catholic Gators 59-50 in consolation round quarter-final action at the 58th Standard High School Basketball Tournament at Governor Simcoe.
“Last game (loss to Thorold Monday) we got off to a slow start and that was the reason we lost so this game one of our focuses was to come out shooting confident,” Yioldassis said.
Yioldassis, who led the Cougars with 16 points, noted being able to knock down an early shot can do a world of confidence for a shooter.
“When you make your first couple, you start to feel it after a while,” he said. “It’s really important.”
Yioldassis has taken on more of a leadership role as one of the more experienced players on the team.
“I’m not like a scoring-type player. I’m just trying to lead and do whatever I can,” he said.
Yioldassis is well aware how important an older player can be to the less experienced members of the roster.
“It’s a lot of help,” he said. “We use our experience to help them because we’ve been in those situations before so we know how to deal with it and be successful with it.”
The Cougars have made no bones about the fact that once they lost in the opening round Monday, they planned to make the best of the situation and shoot for a consolation title.
“We want to play as much basketball as we can (this week),” Yioldassis said. “We have to keep making sure we keep focused on our goal and cut down the mental mistakes.”
The Cougars raced out to a 20-7 lead after one quarter and led 35-24 at the half. Centennial then increased their lead to 52-32 after three, but the Gators rallied and shaved the lead to single digits before the Cougars regrouped.
“We were down 21 and it’s a little hard to prey on moral victories all the time, but they played awesome and didn’t quit,” Lakeshore coach Todd Shoalts said. “We were super short-handed tonight — all of our big kids were gone — so I’m asking kids to play completely out of position and they didn’t disappoint me.”
COUGARS 59 GATORS 50
Kully’s/No Limit Performance Players of the Game: Centennial’s Jackson McNeil and Lakeshore’s Thomas Cryer.
For the Centennial Cougars: Nick Yioldassis 16; Jadin Baldwin 6; Jackson McNeil 6; Jackson Collin 6; Nick Tessier 5; Ryan Stark 5; Dalton Slack 3; James Goodfellow 2; Robbie Pereira 2. 8 points unaccounted for on scoresheet.
For the Lakeshore Catholic Gators: Thomas Cryer 18; Sam Beifuss 16; Andrew Scott 7; Ben Shoalts 5; Jonathan Klauck 4.
BULLDOGS 65 PATRIOTS 52
Alexien Evseyev netted 26 and Yaseen Ali added 24 to pace the Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs past the Laura Secord Patriots.
Rounding out the scoring for the Bulldogs were: Barin Alp (4); Hayden Paterson (3); Devontae Edwards (2); Nate Butler (2); Connor Johnston (2); Oreoluwa Fowler (2).
Scoring for Laura Secord were: Oneich Samuels (16); Eljay Johnson (13); Deondrea Beufort (12); Ayden Ross (9); Lucas Davidson (2).
NAVIGATORS 57 RAIDERS 37
Niagara Christian Navigators advanced to the Standard consolation semifinals with a 57-37 victory Tuesday over the Holy Cross Raiders.
Hitting the scoresheet for Niagara Christian were Neil Wangler (14), Dayo Williams (13), Ryan Du (9), Navs’s player of the game Ladi Aganga (7), Adam Chan (6), Anthony Molon (2), Jason Lau (2), Joshua Poon (2) and David Moffat (2).
Scoring for Holy Cross were Reuben Eshuis (16), Bruce Deluca (12), Sebastian Ayala (5), Malcolm Graves (2) and Sam Trivieri (2).
SAINTS 52 STORM 51
The St. Catharines Collegiate Saints edged the Smithville Christian Storm 52-51 Tuesday night to advance to the consolation semifinals of the Standard tournament.
Collegiate was led by player of the game Joseph Waterman with 22 points. Also scoring for the Saints were Nathan Taylor (9), Louizidor Fenelon (7), Nick Sindingham (5), Teegan Mann (3), Ethan Taylor (2), Jamar Kennedy-Clarke (2). Two points were not accounted for.
Smithville Christian’s player of the game was Derick Breukelman with 11 points. Other scorers for the Storm were Zion Hoekstra (14), Jayden Talsma (13), Luke Huinink (11) and Sam Korvemaker (2).
SUPPORT US
On the right side of our web site, you will notice a yellow SUPPORT US button.
We are asking anyone who finds value in our work and is able to financially help us to click on the button and contribute whatever amount you feel is appropriate and can afford. There is no set amount. Any amount is appreciated.
The funds collected will be used to enhance and offset the expenses of running the web site.
