The AA championships likely provided the most fireworks as Seycove and St. Thomas Aquinas faced off in three raucous, high-scoring duels in a four-day span.
The host Fighting Saints found themselves in a heap of trouble when the Seyhawks knocked them off 82-79 on Tuesday. That put Seycove in the driver’s seat while STA was faced with three straight must-win games.
“That really puts you behind the eight ball in a double knockout,” said STA head coach Jim Kelly. “It’s four games in four nights. For lack of a better term, it’s a real ball-buster. It’s just very difficult to do. I wasn’t feeling great, to be honest with you.”
The Saints battled on, beating Elphinstone 80-50 Wednesday to earn two more shots at Seycove. On Thursday STA kept rolling, riding a 40-point performance from star Grade 12 guard Michael Kelly to a 93-67 win.
Michael is Jim’s son, so it’s hard to get the coach to gush about his own boy, but it was hard to deny Michael’s impact for the Saints.
“He took that game over,” said Jim, adding that Michael hit five three-pointers in the decisive third quarter.
That win set up a final showdown on Friday and fans from both schools packed the STA gym ready for a classic confrontation.
“I don’t know what happened, man,” Kelly said about the monster crowd that took over the gym for the final. “They had to open up the stage. It was the craziest environment in 30 years down there, and Seycove brought a ton of people. … I don’t think the kids could hear much of what I was telling them. That might have been a good thing in the end. They did it themselves.”
STA completed the comeback on their home turf, out-running the Seyhawks for a 94-78 win, claiming the Howe Sound title with their third win in three nights.
“We did the old adage, we’ll take it one game at a time, one night at a time,” said Kelly. “We didn’t look too far ahead, we just stuck to our knitting. We play pretty hard and we kind of outwork and outlast teams. That’s been kind of our M-O.”
The Saints try to make up for a lack of size with pressure and speed, pushing the tempo in an exciting brand of basketball that saw them scoring 90+ points on many nights this season.
“We’re so small, we just try to run a lot. We try to fast break. Whether the other team scores or not, we just try to get the ball off of the rim and get it down the court. We take the first good shot that we get and we try to move the ball around very quickly.”
Michael Kelly, named tournament MVP, again led the way with 32 points in the final game while his STA teammates Matteo Botteselle, 28 points, and Chad Steverding, 20 points, came up huge as well.
“Those two guys played the games of their lives – the best games I’ve ever seen them play,” said Kelly, adding that the Seyhawks, led by provincial team player Christopher Ross, pushed the Saints to the limit.
“Seycove is an awesome team,” he said. “They can just shoot the hell out of the basketball, like really impressive. They were very, very impressive.”
The Saints now turn their attention to the provincial championships where they won’t be highly ranked but they will be looking to score some upsets.
“I’m always kind of an optimist,” said Kelly. “The biggest thing is getting there. … I think we’re going to have a good chance of getting a win in that first game. It’s all about momentum. We’re a little bit dangerous, I would say.”
