By Larry Moko
The St. Jean de Brébeuf Braves showed a 'flash' of brilliance on the basketball court Wednesday.
As visitors against the fourth-place Bishop Ryan Celtics, the fifth-place Braves opened the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic senior high school playoffs with a convincing 54-41 victory.
During the regular schedule, BR (9-5) won both meetings against Brébeuf (6-8). The scores were 61-48 and 50-37.
"We've been slowly building all year trying to get the team to click," Brébeuf coach Nathan Bruzzese said. "Tonight we showed a flash of what we can do. We still think we can improve, though."
The Braves are defending league champions.
In other quarter-final action, the first-place Cathedral Gaels defeated the St. Mary Crusaders, 86-39, the St. Thomas More Knights topped the ACMT Jaguars, 73-39, and the Bishop Tonnos Titans edged the St. John Henry Newman Cardinals, 67-64.
Semifinals on Monday, Feb. 10 feature Brébeuf against undefeated Cathedral and St. Thomas More at second-place Bishop Tonnos.
"We've been telling the guys all year that we're fortunate everybody makes the playoffs in our league," Bruzzese said. "Whether you go 14-0 or 0-14 you have a chance to win the championship. Our motto has been 'all you've got to do is win three games in a row."
Despite reeling off a spirited 10-0 run the third quarter, the Celtics entered the final eight minutes trailing, 36-28. Brébeuf’s Omaree Francis, who finished with a team-high 16 points, thwarted any BR comeback bid, however, by scoring eight unanswered points down the stretch.
"Knowing that it was the playoffs and that we lost to them twice, we had to bring it today," the veteran Francis said. "We didn't want the last practice to be (Tuesday's). The last practice was probably our best of the season."
In addition to Francis' production, Brébeuf got 11 points from centre Alessio DiGregorio, nine from Neza Sefuku and five by Alex Iredale.
"Alessio, our big guy inside, has been solid for us all year," the Brébeuf coach said. "Any time you get the ball inside to him he's like another point guard on the floor. He moves the ball well and doesn't force any shots."
Sefuku was fouled on a three-point shot attempt and drained all three from the charity stripe to give the Braves a 46-38 cushion with two minutes, 25 seconds remaining.
The top scorers for BR were Antonio Salinas and Matthew Santino who netted 16 and 12 points, respectively. Adam Adili chipped in with seven.
Celtics coach Mike DiClaudio said his team couldn't recover from a slow start on offence.
"When you only score 11 points in the first half it's very difficult to win," he said. "Our defence wasn't the problem ... (Brébeuf) only had 21 points in the half."
DiClaudio pointed out that the Celtics were getting open shots but not many were finding the mark.
"We weren't shooting the ball well. Nothing was falling for us. Even the simple put-backs and layups weren't going in. It was frustrating.
"I thought we would be able to claw back but they got the three foul shots (by Sefuku) that kind of sealed the victory for them."
Bruzzese said the Braves stayed disciplined and "threw a couple of different defensive looks" at the Celtics.
Francis said communication was a key to the win.
"We were talking a lot on defence," he said. "Everyone was working together and boxing out, as well. It was definitely better than our previous games.
"I had four fouls going into the final quarter so I had to sit for a bit. But I knew I had to keep positive energy. A lot of guys look up to me because I've been playing three or four years now for the school. I knew if I had a positive energy everyone was going to feed off it."
Bishop Ryan's season isn't over. The Celtics, Gaels and Titans will all represent the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic league Feb. 7-8 in St. Catharines and Welland at the 16-team Ontario Catholic Classic tournament.
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