Phoenix punch ticket to OFSAA basketball

Jack Ciocca filled his role to perfection Monday as the Saint Francis Phoenix senior boys basketball team defeated the Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs 74-50 in the Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association AA championship game at Saint Francis.

Anthony Heyes and Andrew Ens provided the Phoenix with their typical offensive outbursts, with 21 points each, while Ciocca chipped in with 13 points, four rebounds and four assists.

“Jack is often an unsung member of the team and he has had real growth this season in his game,” Saint Francis head coach Jon Marcheterre said. “We asked him to be more aggressive and to be a bigger part of the offence. For us to be successful and to deflect some of the attention from Anthony and Andrew, Jack plays that key role. He handles that with a lot of maturity as a Grade 10 player, who is being asked for a lot but also to defer at times to other guys. He contributes day in and day out at both ends of the floor and he is a great kid who really embodies what we preach at Saint Francis. He’s selfless and he works hard.”

The 15-year-old knows exactly what his job is with the Phoenix.

“I bring leadership. I am the youngest guy on the team but I have played this offence, I have played this defence so I am helping out the guys who don’t have the experience,” the Niagara United travel player said. “I also bring offence and defence.”

He was comfortable with his coach’s request to provide more offence.

“The skills were there but it was more the mental stuff that I wasn’t achieving. I came in with more confidence this year knowing that I would have a bigger role, especially being a leader and knowing offensively that I could be a guy that could score.”

Ciocca also played senior ball in his Grade 9 year and that has aided him this season.

“It was a lot of help because it was being with experienced and older guys and being able to learn from them. My role might not have been as big last year but it really helped me build the skills I have this year.”

Against the Bulldogs, the Phoenix trailed 15-11 after one quarter before roaring back to grab a 39-28 advantage at the half.

“You could obviously see that there were still some jitters in our guys. The shots were a little flat and the legs were a little stiff and it took a little longer to get going,” Marcheterre said. “We trusted in what we have been doing all year and we talked a lot today about trusting the plan we put in place way back at the beginning of the year on how to get here, not assuming anything. By doing that, they proved to everybody what we were able to do.”

Losing to Eden in The Standard semifinals in early December was a pivotal, early moment in the Phoenix’s season.

“It forced us to be a little bit more reflective and to tinker with a couple of things. There were some things we need to fix and adjust offensively. It was pivotal in the moment but moving forward we tried to diminish that impact,” Marcheterre said. “It still stinks because it was an important game locally but we’re 32-4 now.”

He likes how his team looks heading into Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations championship March 6-8 in Belle River.

“Absolutely. We are heading to OFSAA so I am happy about that but I think we are starting to play the right way and we are not just going to be happy to be there. We are conscious of the fact that a lot of teams show up at OFSAA just happy to be there and we are going to go there with a purpose and to see where the chips fall.”

Ciocca shares his coach’s enthusiasm.

“I came to this school with a couple other guys to play basketball and we came here to win,” he said. “We come here every day to practise and work on things so we can achieve that. The coaches said not to talk about OFSAA early in the year but now we have achieved what we had been building up to and it means a lot.”

The Bulldogs went into the final missing their top player, Mazen Yagubi. Yagubi was assessed his second technical foul with 0.2 seconds left in his team’s semifinal win over Sir Allan MacNab and was ejected from the game. Under SOSSA rules, an ejection carries an automatic one-game suspension making him ineligible for the final. It was the third time in recent memory that the same thing had happened at the SOSSA AA semifinals, including a number of years ago to a Saint Francis player.

“It is not the way we drew it up, that’s for sure,” Churchill head coach Martin Cook said. “A key guy was taken from us and we didn’t have our full team. It was unfair and I don’t think that it was just but we talked about resiliency and coming back and doing the little things. We knew we were good enough but we just didn’t have it today.”

The Bulldogs ended their season with an overall record of 27-2 and four tournament titles, including The Standard and Tribune championships.

“I am so proud of these guys and I will miss them tremendously,” Cook said. “They were a great group of kids, young gentlemen and they are going to be amazing young men. I couldn’t be prouder of what they accomplished this year.”

Churchill will graduate Yagubi, Brady Pupek, Quinn Johnston, Mujeeb Omar, Owen Cuthbert, Will McAlpine and Bennett Pisek.

“We will be rebuilding but we will be decent. Hats off to them. They played very well,” Cook said.

STATS PACK

PHOENIX 74 BULLDOGS 50

Cat’s Caboose Players of the Game: Saint Francis’ Andrews Ens and Anthony Heyes with 21 points each.

For the Saint Francis Phoenix: Ens 21; Hayes 21; Jack Ciocca 13; Josh Smith 8; Jakub Labanowicz 4; Kevin Ducuara 3; Tommy Goodwin 2.

For the Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs: Brady Pupek 16; Bennett Pisek 14; Matteo Scaglione 10; Mujeeb Omar 7; Daniel Nunez Colome 2; Owen Cuthbert 1.

Up next: Saint Francis advances to the OFSAA AA championship March 6-8 in Belle River.

SEMIFINALS

PHOENIX 63 CYCLONE 54

Anthony Heyes netted 22 points to power Saint Francis to a 63-54 victory over the E.L. Crossley Cyclone in SOSSA semifinal action.

Also scoring for the Phoenix were: Jack Ciocca 10; Tommy Goodwin 9; Andrews Ens 7; Josh Smith 5; Jakub Labanowicz 4; Carter MacNeil 3; and, Matt Futino 3.

Scoring for the Zone 3 champion Cyclone were: Sam Jeffery 17; Jackson Kalybaba 16; Aakash Senthil 9; Matthew Kleinsmith 6; Connor Bleich 5; and, Luca Burattini 1.

BULLDOGS 69 LIONS 68

Mazen Yagubi poured in 32 points, including the game-winning free throws, to spark Churchill to a 69-68 shading of the Sir Allan MacNab Lions in SOSSA semifinal action.

Also scoring for the Bulldogs were: Brady Pupek 22; Mujeeb Omar 3; Bennett Pisek 3; Matteo Scaglione 3; and, Sawyer Neufeld 2.

Leading scorers for Sir Allan McNab were Dyante Johnson (26), Noah Smart (15) and Treyvon Porter-Howe (14)