Toronto St. Michaels wins 29th annual Freeds Tournament

Ryan Blevins

 

St. Clair College invited Canadian high school basketball players into the SportsPlex as they hosted the 29th annual Freeds Tip Off Tournament.

The tournament, run by Catholic Central High School and their head coach Peter Cusumano, hosted some of the best schools in the province. This year’s tournament contained 15 teams from Ontario, including six local teams and one from Quebec. This year’s tournament also hosted six schools who were past champions.

Of the local schools in the tournament only F.J. Brennan Catholic high school and Sandwich Secondary lost both of their games on the first day of the tournament, placing them in the exhibition bracket for day two. Brennan’s Landon Porter scored 34 points in their opening 60-54 loss to Sarnia St. Patrick.

Honourable W.C. Kennedy Collegiate and Holy Names Catholic high school split their games in pool play, going 1-1 and advancing to the bronze bracket. Both schools would meet in the bronze bracket consolation where Holy Names would prevail 56-43. Reigning Windsor Essex County Secondary School Athletic Association Mr. Basketball award winner Isaiah Famillia dropped 25 points for the Knights.

St. Anne Catholic High School also split their first two games but were able to advance to the silver bracket where they would win the silver finals. Ryan Kiss had 24 points for the Saints in that game. The only local team to win both their first day games was defending city champions CCH going 2-0 and advancing to the gold bracket.

After Friday’s slate of games all teams were invited to the Caboto Club for the tournaments annual banquet. Former Detroit Lions kicker Eddie Murray was the guest speaker for the evening as he spoke on mental health issues. AM800’s Steve Bell was the master of ceremonies.

After losing to Pickering Pine Ridge in the gold bracket semi-finals the CCH Comets awaited the final of the game between Oakville Holy Trinity and five-time defending champion Toronto St. Michael. Behind Jahmal Abbey’s 22 points, St. Michaels would advance to the finals of the gold bracket setting up a gold consolation matchup between CCH and Holy Trinity for third place in the tournament.

Entering the game with a different energy CCH took the floor. Najee Henderson-Brown scored 21 points in the victory while controlling the offensive pace. Strong defensive and rebounding performances were turned in by Donald Mensah and Jonothan Nicola. A dominating performance by the Comets led them to a 62-52 win over Holy Trinity.

“There’s a lot of room to improve,” said Brown-Henderson, “We have a long schedule ahead of us. March is when the real games come so I’d rather win an OFSAA game than win a game in Freeds Tournament.”

Following the third place game was the tournament finals. The first half saw five lead changes as St. Michael’s held a 25-21 lead going into the locker rooms at halftime. The Blue Raiders came out of the break looking to put the game away and they began to do so by going on a 15-7 run  early in the third quarter forcing Pine Ridge to take a time out. With under a minute to go in the third quarter St. Michaels was battling for a loose ball when they gained possession and found their top scorer Danillo Djuricic in the paint. All alone, Djuricic proceeded to slam home a dunk that energized his team and made the score 42-28 in favour of St. Michaels.

“I had to do whatever I needed to get done in order for us to win. Be a leader on the court, do what I had to do on offense and defence,” said Djuricic

A late rally by Pine Ridge was to no avail as Toronto St. Michaels captured their sixth consecutive Freeds Tip Off tournament. St. Michaels basketball has owned Windsor in recent years and is now 38-0 in the city over the past six years.

St. Michael’s head coach Jeff Zownir is proud that his team was able to continue their streak and bring the tournament gold back to Toronto.

“It’s a tough tournament. We are very proud of the tradition,” said Zownir, “The fact that it is six years means its new kids and I think it says something about our program in terms of the level we are trying to get to and maintain.

After the championship, first and second team tournament all-stars we awarded. Receiving first team honours were CCH’s Najee Brown-Henderson, St. Michael’s Jamal Abbey-Wright, Pine Ridge’s Jordan Henry and Ryan Kiss of St. Anne. Second team all-stars were given to Manny Agong of CCH and Darius Thorne of Pine Ridge. The tournament’s Most Valuable PLayer was Danilo Djuricic from Toronto St. Michaels after recording 20 points, 12 rebounds and six blocks in the finals.

Next season’s tournament will be the 30th installment since Catholic Central won the first Freeds Tip Off tournament in 1987. Catholic Central head coach and tournament organizer Peter Cusumano already has his sights on making next year’s tournament one of the best yet.

“It’s one of the elite tournaments in the province, that’s why the top teams in the province come here. We are looking at trying to get a few more quality teams, we are looking at a couple teams from Quebec that might want to come down and improve the quality of the tournament,” said Cusumano.