Storm return to consolation final
Smithville Christian’s Bo Langendoen was the perfect choice for his team’s player the game honour Thursday after the Storm knocked off the Thorold Golden Eagles 67-57 in the consolation semifinals of the 61st Standard High School Boys Basketball Tournament at Ridley College.
“Sometimes the player underneath the basket is taking a beating and getting hit hard. They are grabbing the rebounds and they don’t get acknowledged and there is a reason why he was the player of the game tonight,” Smithville head coach Sam Scandinavo said. “He got the rebounds, you saw him make some passes and do some picking. He did everything: all those things that you don’t get credit for and see on the scoresheet, he did.”
For the record, the Grade 11 student finished the game with 10 points and 11 rebounds.
“Since I am a taller guy, I am more focused on rebounds but if I have the ball and I am wide open I might as well take the shot because I am pretty good on the three,” the 6-foot-4 player said.
The 16-year-old was a member of Smithville Christian’s volleyball team that won a silver medal at the recent Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations A championships. He missed the second tryout for basketball but was able to make the first and third one.
“We only had two practices to get ready for this tournament,” he said. “We did have some out-of-practice talks and we went over all the presses.”
There wasn’t time to work on everything.
“The press break we had (Thursday) is the only one we have. We didn’t really have one so we kind of made it up on the spot.”
To make the quick switch from volleyball to basketball, the Storm relies on its size, athleticism and one other important component.
“It involves a lot of chemistry with how we get around with the ball. We were able to break their press.”
Smithville is in the Standard consolation final for the second straight year and Langendoen knows what his team requires to be successful.
“We need to work on an actual press break,” he said, with a smile.
Scandinavo liked what he saw from his team Thursday.
“As I told you on Monday, we had to do better and play better and tonight we showed up. We did amazing last night but tonight the bench was incredible. When he had an injury or foul trouble tonight, it was a team game and we played it to a T. And kudos to the other coach,” he said.
The Storm succeeded by beating the Golden Eagles down the floor.
“They did some things we are not accustomed to with their pressing. They did it spectacularly but we found a way to beat it in the second half for the most part.”
Thorold head coach Marc Dupont was impressed with the Storm.
“Hats off to Smithville. They did really good job handling the press, moving the ball around and getting the ball into their bigs in the post. They destroyed us on the boards and they did a really good job of when they attacked the paint, they found someone weak side almost every time to get those easy layups.”
Things weren’t as easy for Thorold.
“From our perspective, we lacked doing that. Sometimes we went in the paint and we were trying to do too much. We tried to make difficult shots instead of finding open players and our offence lacked movement and patience. As a result, we were forcing shots and we didn’t cause any sort of confusion by running motion,” he said. “On the press, we did a pretty good job of getting on-the-ball pressure but we missed out on the opportunity of taking easy passes away and they took advantage of that and picked us apart.”
The Golden Eagles will continue to build as the year wears on.
“It is early in the season for us and it’s nice now that we have had a lot of games. We had a tournament last week and one this week and now we have an opportunity to get back in the gym and work on some things before we have another tournament next week.”
STATS PACK
Storm 67 Golden Eagles 57
Cat’s Caboose Players of the Game: Smithville’s Bo Langendoen and Thorold’s Israel Anuku.
For the Smithville Christian Storm: Daniel Attia 18; Logan Higginson 11; Christopher Nyakabasa 10; Bo Langendoen 10; Lincoln van der Wier 10; Derrick Posthumus 8.
For the Thorold Golden Eagles: Tayte Fraser 20; Israel Anuku 12; Armann Sandhu 8; Miller Miotto 6; Tyrese Gibson 2; Tyrel Walters 2; Spencer Fluellon 2; Austin Miller 2; Mujeeb Aruna 2; Will Sargeant 1.
Up next: Smithville Christian advances to the consolation final against St. Catharines Collegiate Friday at 5:30 p.m. at St. Catharines Collegiate. Admission is $5 for adults and $2 for students.
