Thorpe’s career night pushes Flyers past Mustangs
Chad Thorpe was a man on a mission Thursday night at Notre Dame in the championship quarter-finals of the 67th Annual Welland Tribune Basketball Tournament.
The Eden Flyers guard scored 14 points in the first quarter and 15 more in the second en route to a 38-point explosion that led the Flyers to an 88-54 victory over the Saint Michael Mustangs. But it was more than just the scoring for the 6-foot-3 point guard as his barrage of deflections and steals help his team build an insurmountable lead.
“He got a lot of deflections that led to a lot of fast break opportunities and he was a menace out there,” Eden head coach Jonathon Thorpe said.
Father and son are looking forward to continuing on in the tournament.
“The Standard and the Tribune are the two big tournaments of the year for us and we want to perform well this year for sure,” Jonathon Thorpe said.
A Tribune title is high on the wish list for Eden.
“Coming in last year being a finalist and losing in the finals that was a little upsetting,” Chad Thorpe said. “Just to be able to come back here for this tournament — it is such a big tournament and well-known through all of Niagara — and put on a good performance is important to us.”
Because of COVID, Thorpe has only played in the tournament twice.
“Going into my Grade 12 year last year it was something I wanted to add to my resume. We played well in the finals last year but we couldn’t get the job done. It is something we are looking to come back and put on our resumes.”
Thorpe’s 38 points helped the Flyers get one step closer to that goal.
“It is a team effort all the way around and everyone was sharing the rock and getting guys open. It just happened to be me taking the shots today,” he said. “It is a special moment and you love to have big games and we are looking forward to the next one. We are going to throw this one behind us and look forward to the next game.”
His 38 points beat his previous high school best scoring output by six points.
“That was definitely No. 1,” he said.
The Flyers led 26-12 after one quarter and 50-28 at the half before cruising to the victory.
“Top to bottom they are highly skilled, they play disciplined and they execute very well,” Saint Michael head coach Keith Bomberry said. “We didn’t have an answer for them and they are a very talented team and they are going to be a really tough out moving forward in this tournament.”
He didn’t like the outcome but was happy the Mustangs got a chance to play the Flyers.
“It was an eye-opening experience tonight and we have a lot of work to do and a lot of things to improve upon. We didn’t take care of the ball and that is a big lesson. The guys were in shock and didn’t play well enough and Eden played excellent tonight.”
The Flyers were taking nothing for granted against Saint Michael.
“We came out really strong. St. Mike’s is a very good team and we knew that coming in,” Jonathon Thorpe said. “We didn’t think it was a normal quarter-final game. It was two good teams going at it and they played very well. I think it was our defensive intensity that carried us to start the game off.”
The Flyers advance to play Sir Winston Churchill in Friday’s semifinal. Churchill beat Eden in overtime in last year’s championship game.
“Thanks for reminding me. I forgot that it happened,” Jonathon Thorpe said with a laugh. “We are looking forward to it. It is actually our third time playing them this year and we just played them in a regular season game on Tuesday. We are getting too familiar with each other I think but we will see how things go.”
STATS PACK
Flyers 88 Mustangs 54
Mountainview Building Group Players of the Game: Eden’s Chad Thorpe and Saint Michael’s Arwin Chima.
For the Eden Flyers: Thorpe 38; Kai Schatz 19; Dylan Durlov 7; Luke Johnson 11; Luke Midgley 6; Noah Whyte 6; Xavier Moccio 3; Dominic Olesin 2.
For the Saint Michael Mustangs: Arwin Chima 17; Hagen Genearo 10; Nicholas Karagiannis 9; Luka Dermott 7; Brandon Bell 4; Max Marinas 4; Jakob Jacks 3.
