Garden City Rolls To Semis Against St. Paul’s in NPH Ranked Showdown, Kildonan East Takes JV Ship!
Winnipeg, MB–Day 1 at the Wesmen Classic had some great games as all eight Varsity teams and two Junior Varsity teams were in action. Here is the day’s recap from the Classic.
Oak Park vs. Glenlawn
The opening game of the Wesmen Classic turned out to be tightly contested until the second half where Junior Sesay took over. As the third quarter expired, Glenlawn hit a deep three pointer from Austin Aresnault, however Sesay responded with a triple of his own seconds after. The 2013 Guard got into a rhythm as he started to hit his stride, scoring 23 points in the second half. Glenlawn tried to make it close at the end with back to back Evan Bruce three pointers but the lead was too much to overcome. Oak Park defeated Glenlawn 85-77Kildonan East vs. Sturgeon Heights
Kildonan East vs. Sturgeon Heights
The second game looked like it was going to be a defensive battle as both sides were slow to start offensively. Kildonan East used their two bigs, Ayob Ayob and Dominic Scarlett to set the tone on both sides of the ball. Ayob, who came off a big summer at nationals started off hot scoring 10 points in the opening quarter, and would finish with 26. Dominic Scarlett proved he could be a force, with back to back blocks in a possession and a couple of two handed slams. Kildonan East prevailed 70-65.
St. Paul’s (NPH #11) vs. Kelvin
The rivalry continues between these two teams as they added another chapter, this one was a lot closer than their meeting a week previously. The NPH #11 ranked team, playing without their Head Coach seemed to be a different team, they started off the game sloppy and Kelvin took advantage taking a 37-31 lead into the break. Following the slow start, the Crusaders started the third quarter with a strong 6-0 run and looked to gain their confidence back.
Justus Alleyn led the way in the quarter scoring eight points, finishing with 28 to lead all scorers. Kelvin would not go easy, although they trailed late in the game they continued to battle. Justus Alleyn and Malik Irwin went to the line often in the final frame and put them away, 70-65 to advance the semi-final.
Garden City (NPH #19) vs. John Taylor
In the final varsity HS game of the night the Garden City Fighting Gophers took care of business defeating the John Taylor Pipers 86-49. Right from the start, Tynan Reyes looked to have control of the game scoring 10 points in the quarter. Since playing last year, Reyes has looked to develop well into a solid post player with a bit of grit to his game, something he didn’t use as much last season.
Josh Magpantay also contributed to the scoring attack in the first half before yielding to the bench in the fourth quarter. Reyes continued to dominate getting whatever he wanted and using his skill set to rack up the points, finishing with an impressive 35 to lead all scorers for the game and the day.
In the Semi-Final’s the first matchup will feature Oak Park and Kildonan East, both sides have plenty of top Manitoba prospect as Ayob Ayob and Junior Sesay showed their abilities to score and create for their teams.
On the other side, two NPH ranked teams St. Paul’s (#11) and Garden City (#19) will face off. This game will have plenty of fire power, loaded with talent. St. Paul’s will be in tough without their head coach but don’t count them out just yet. Tynan Reyes and Justus Alleyn will be the focal point of that game as both teams will try to slow the other down.
JV Championship Final – Kildonan East vs. Glenlawn
The JV portion of the Classic has found a champion The JV teams battled it out and the remaining two took centre stage. Kildonan East jumped out of the gates and had the crowd behind them as they took a 16-5 lead heading into the second quarter. Glenlawn hit a buzzer beater heading into the halftime break to cut the lead to seven. Following the break Glenlawn started to fall behind but continued to work away at the KEC lead with a solid final minute of the third quarter bringing it to five. The final quarter had plenty of back and forth drama as Glenlawn inched closer but was never able to take the lead. Kildonan East held on after a dominating first quarter to emerge victorious 60-54 and take the JV Wesmen Classic Championship. Dharmjit Dhillon, Davinder Pandher and Karanjit Gill led the way for Kildonan East scoring 17, 13 and 11 respectively.
JV Tournament MVP – Dharmjit Dhillon
JV Tournament All-Stars: Kyle Silva, Arman Iranpour, Davinder Pandher, Kieran McGrath, Kieran Zziwa
NPH TOP Performers
- Junior Sesay (Oak Park) – 32pts
- Casey Blanca (Oak Park) – 15pts
- Austin Arsenault (Glenlawn) – 19pts
- Evan Bruce (Glenlawn) – 19pts
- Ayob Ayob (Kildonan East) – 26pts
- Dominic Scarlett (Kildonan East) – 12pts
- Ryan Rycroft (Sturgeon Heights) – 24pts
- Justus Alleyn (St. Paul’s) – 28pts
- Ivan Paskvalin (Kelvin) – 16pts
- Tynan Reyes (Garden City) – 35pts
- Josh Magpantay (Garden City) – 18pts
- Kuet Kuet (John Taylor) – 20pts
