Daric Labadie Carries Brebeuf to Finals Vs Henri Bourassa
The final day is upon us and the defending champs of the high school season Brebeuf, are coming out of a hard fought win over Jeanne Mance by a score of 87-85. Today’s finals features Brebeuf and Henri Bourassa, think about it as the San Antonio Spurs against the Phoenix Suns in terms of style of play.
Brebeuf has the MVP of the tournament in my opinion, in Daric Labadie. He finished last night’s game with 29 points, and 21 of them came from beyond the arc where he shot 7-14.
Labadie showed resemblance to Kevin Pangos’ game as I dubbed him the most packaged PG at #QCProvincials. He’ll move on to play CEGEP next year for St-Foy.
Head Coach of Brebeuf, Martin Thibault has coached Labadie for five years, he spoke on his point guard after the game stating, “He works so hard so that he can be this good in these moments. He can shoot the ball under pressure and he can go to the basket when he wants.”
In this tournament Brebeuf has showed that they are the best team when it comes to execution because of the patience and understanding of how to get a good look at the basket. Their starting five, up to the sixth man can all score in bunches, this is what makes them the best match-up for HB.
Emanuel Bandoumel showed that he was more than a freak athlete. He created his own offense and connected from deep, finishing the game with 17 points and 11 rebounds, while having to sit out a chunk of the third quarter in foul trouble.
Brebeuf had three players with 15+ points. Ikapi Delpe Doukaga pitched in with 21 points of his own and was relentless on defense with four steals.
Jeanne Mance didn’t lose the game as much as they self-destructed. With a great size advantage across the board, they should not have allowed Brebeuf to swallow up rebounds like they did. A big part of the loss in this category was because they were not in position to seal their man.
While bickering among one another on a missed assignment, that turned into a second chance opportunity for Brebeuf.
Regardless of playing poorly, they were still in the game all the way to the end thanks to a very strong individual performance by James Jean-Marie , finishing with a tournament high 36 points to go with his 10 rebounds.
A monstrous dunk by Jeanne Mance’s Glody Kavadioko renergized the squad and they got out of the slump for a strong five minutes in the third quarter.
Their second half surge gave them their first lead since the beginning of the first half 83-82, when there was two minutes left to play.
Labadie stepped in and took over, giving Brebeuf their winning basket.
Jeanne Mance was able to set up for a final shot while they were down 87-84 with 17 seconds to go. The crowd erupted on what they thought was a three point shot that Jean-Marie got fouled on, which would have sent him to the line for a chance to tie; however his toes were just over and he had two free throws, one make and one purposely missed to try to get it back for a final attempt.
In today’s finals, Labadie gives Brebeuf the slight advantage because of his ability to control the floor and set teammates up for high percentage shots. On the other end Henri Bourassa has multiple guys handling the ball but none that are true point guards.
As much as I like the Bourassa squad, if I was a betting man, my money would be on Brebeuf.
In the bronze medal game this afternnon, Dorval-Jean XXIII will take on Jeanne Mance. In last night’s game against Henri Bourassa, Jean XXIII needed more than Miganeh Jama and that will be the same today if they are to compete against Jeanne Mance.
Steeve Joseph showed signs in last night’s loss, but it was too late when he got it going.
Today is a new day and the final day of high school basketball in Quebec for the 2014-2015 season.
