Thunder falls to Bernie Custis in SOSSA final
Josh Enns’ basketball career at Blessed Trinity ended one game shy of a coveted trip to the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations AAA championships.
After defeating the Greater Fort Erie Gryphons 67-44 in the Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association semifinals, the Thunder dropped a 62-49 decision to the excellent Bernie Custis Tigers in Thursday’s SOSSA final at Notre Dame.
“The first three quarters I couldn’t hit any shots and the team couldn’t hit any shots, we had some bad turnovers and we just didn’t take care or value the ball,” said Enns, who had a team-high 18 points in the game. “But our defence was pretty good.”
The 17-year-old agreed it was difficult to see his Blessed Trinity career come to a conclusion.
“It’s tough and there is no one I would rather go to war with than these guys,” the 6-foot-2 forward said. “It’s hard knowing that it is probably my last game.”
The Grade 12 student has enjoyed his basketball journey at the Grimsby high school.
“I have enjoyed all the close games— wins and losses — because they were all really fun.”
Thunder head coach John Cino loved having Enns on his team.
“He is a great player, but more importantly he is a great kid,” he said. “He works so hard and he’s in the gym all the time.
“He’s polite and respectful but on the court, he plays hard and I couldn’t ask for more from a player.”
Enns is hoping to play post-secondary basketball this fall and has had some interest from Niagara College.
“I think I need to get faster and stronger, shoot more and get a better handle with the ball,” he said.
One thing Enns won’t need to work on is his unflappable nature on the court.
“I just take whatever comes to me and that’s just what I have always done,” he said.
Cino loves that calmness.
“If we had more guys like him, we might be better off.”
He feels Enns deserves a shot to play post secondary basketball.
“To me, it would be a crime if he doesn’t play at the next level,” he said. “College and university coaches would be crazy not to take him on their teams.”
Enns’ last game started poorly for his squad. Blessed Trinity fell behind 9-3 early but cut the deficit to 14-10 by the end of the first quarter. The Tigers then built second- and third-quarter 29-25 and 45-35 before coasting home in the fourth quarter. The game would have been a lot of closer if the Thunder had been able to hit some of their many open looks.
“It was a funny game. We missed some shots and got a little rattled early and that has kind of been our nemesis throughout the year,” Cino said. “When things didn’t go well, we didn’t really handle it very well like we did Tuesday against Notre Dame.”
Cino took nothing away from the performance of Bernie Custis.
“I give them a lot of credit,” he said. “That is a really good team that works really hard and they deserved to win. They outworked us.”
STATS PACK
Tigers 62 Thunder 49
Mick and Angelo’s/Johnny Rocco’s/Cracker Jack’s Player of the Game: Blessed Trinity’s Josh Enns with 18 points,
For the Blessed Trinity Thunder: Enns 18; Lucas Cino 16; Cole Arnold 8; Noah Monteforte 4; Dashiel Baktawar 2; Ben Shipley 1.
For the Bernie Custis Tigers: Ermir Haziri 18; Nathan Granger 14; Mohammed Abdalia 10.
