Tutanes sparks Patriots to Review win
The Saint Paul Patriots opened defence of their Niagara Falls Review High School Boys Basketball Tournament title with an impressive 90-35 victory Thursday over the A.N. Myer Marauders.
Leading the way for the Patriots was Jerwyn Tutanes, who poured in a game-high 31 points, including 20 in the first quarter.
Tutanes’ performance is something Saint Paul head coach Frank Capretta has come to expect.
“He plays in the summer on a pretty high level AAU team, the Niagara Tigers, and he goes against guys who are bigger and stronger than him, but you look at the boxscore at the end of the game and he has 20, he has logged a lot of minutes and he had handled the ball,” he said.
Tutanes is in Grade 12 and could return for another year of high school.
“He had some decisions to make and I know he has aspirations of playing after high school and we will see when the season is over,” Capretta said.
Saint Paul’s coach knows his talented guard will put the work in to get to the next level.
“The biggest thing with him has always been his work ethic,” Capretta said. “It has never wavered, we have never had to get after him and he’s a leader. It’s nice when one of your most talented players is your hardest worker.”
The 5-foot-8 guard takes a lot of pride in that work ethic.
“I tell myself that if I am going to be great at something, I have to be at my best,” the 17-year-old said. “I can’t settle for being average in basketball or anything.”
The Grade 12 student feels he has made quite a bit of progress in his game over the last few seasons.
“I think I have been understanding the game better, seeing more plays happen before they actually happen and reading the defences.”
Tutanes has yet to make up his mind about next year, but knows he want to play basketball at the post secondary level.
“I honestly don’t know what I am going to do yet,” he said.
He has already received some interest from Niagara College and hopes his play will attract even more interest.
He knows what it will take to play at the next level.
“Hard work,” he said. “That is it.”
Even with hard work, Myer knew it would be in tough against the defending champion Patriots.
“It was a tough challenge,” Myer head coach Mike Young said. “They shot the ball really, really well. We have some things we want to clean up in our defensive rotations, but we are kind of where we have been all year.
“We want to keep working and keep developing our guys and there’s a lot that we can take from playing a good team like that.”
Pool play in the 42nd annual event continues Friday morning at 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. with the championship games going at 1 p.m. (fifth-place game), 2:30 p.m. (third-place game) and 4 p.m. (championship game). All the games are being played at Westlane.
STATS PACK
Patriots 90 Marauders 35
Mick and Angelo’s/Johnny Rocco’s/Cracker Jacks Player of the Game: Saint Paul’s Jerwyn Tutanes with 31 points, including 20 in the first quarter.
For the Saint Paul Patriots: Tutanes 31; John Graovaz 20; Noah Jordan 14; Jacob McLeod 13; Nick Cristelli 5; Devon Schiller-Cleveland 3; Joe Ciampa 2; Elijah Pappin 2.
For the A.N. Myer Marauders: Ben Tait 10; Nathan Lefebvre 8; Cole Joudrey 7; Aaryan Siddiqui 4; Jordan Hilliker 3; Jeffrey Dai 2; Noah Sharp 1.
