Saints basketball defends home tournament title

December 7, 2016 · 0 Comments

By Jake Courtepatte

There’s nobody better than the Saints on the St. Andrew’s College home court.
The varsity Saints were the victors of the annual SAC Invitational basketball tournament held over the weekend, after a thrilling win over Stephen Lewis Secondary School in the championship game.
Missing a number of key players due to injury and football priorities, the Saints entered the first quarter of Saturday’s championship sluggish in their offense. Trailing 22 – 10 after the opening quarter, the Saints moved to a zone defense in the second, and settled into the game to bring it within five at the half.
With little movement in the third quarter, and the Saints still trailing by six, Jacob Edwards hit back-to-back pullup jumpers and a layup to give the Saints their first lead of the game in the fourth.
A man-on-man defense helped the Saints hold on, eventually reaching a score of 58 – 53 at the final buzzer for the home team.
“Congratulations to the Saints for a great character win and a consistent display of team basketball over the course of the weekend to capture the tournament championship,” said Sean Ludwig, varsity head coach. “Many thanks to the vocal and supportive crowd in Bedard Gym who came out to support the team. It was a great day of basketball at SAC!”
It was the second home championship in a row for the Saints, who bested Holy Cross in last year’s final of the SAC Invitational, going undefeated. They kicked off their CISAA regular season Wednesday following press time against St. Michael’s College, and return to action next Wednesday against Crestwood Preparatory College.
Meanwhile, the junior varsity squad came up just short of a double SAC championship by reaching their final against Stephen Lewis.
They opened up their weekend in a matchup of rivals facing Aurora High School, where Callum Murphy, Jason Yang, and Nick Jadidi combined for 35 points in a strong offensive win for the home team.
Facing Holy Cross in game two with a bench of just seven players, the Saints fell behind early in the first quarter 17 – 5. Turning the tables before the end of the second quarter, the Saints took the lead and the win thanks to another 15 point performance from Murphy.
The strong team from Stephen Lewis spoiled the Saints’ run by taking the championship game on Saturday.