Mullins, Irish provide thrills in Scione win. Notre Dame's Grant Mullins drives past Holy Trinity's Shakeel Walker during the final of Wednesday's Fred Scione Catholic Cup Qualifier tournament. Mullins had 40 points to lead the Irish to a 62-57 victory over the Titans. Steven Der-Garabedian, Special to the Post
When Grant Mullins scored 42 points to lead the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to the championship at the 24th Saints Invitational basketball tournament Saturday in Cambridge, the local paper suggested Mullins may have won the title by himself.
The notion doesn’t seem that far fetched when one player scores almost 60 per cent of a team’s points.
Notre Dame coach Brian Miller stresses that it takes more than one player, but says offensively, the team’s game plan is pretty simple.
“We have five guys who we try to get 10 points each and then we let Grant do his thing,†Miller said.
His thing, lately anyway, has been to shred opposing defences for 40-plus points. Just three days after his MVP performance in the Saints tournament, Mullins put up another 42-point performance, capped by three free throws with less than a second to play in a 66-64 victory over Loyola in the semifinals of the Fred Scione Memorial Catholic Cup â€" the qualifier for the all-Ontario Catholic tournament.
In Wednesday’s final against the Holy Trinity Titans, Mullins rang up 40 points â€" including seven three-pointers â€" as Notre Dame overcame a seven-point deficit in the final five minutes to win 62-57.
“Some people feel Grant is the best (high school) player in Canada,†Miller said. “After seeing what he’s done in the past week, it’s hard to argue.â€
Holy Trinity may lack Notre Dame’s star power but the Titans showed collectively, they stack up pretty well and during the third quarter showed just how dominant they can be. Trailing 43-27 and looking as though they were headed for a lopsided defeat, Holy Trinity ran off 23 straight points to take a seven-point lead.
Trevon McNeil, held to just three points in the opening half, scored 10 during Trinity’s run and Regis Ivaniukus hit two of the Titans’ four three-pointers in the quarter.
“Is that what it was? Wow,†Miller said when asked about Trinity’s run after the game. “Really? I don’t even look at the score half the time. 23-0. Wow. A lot of teams would have (given up).â€
“It was great to see the guys didn’t quit,†said Trinity coach Andrew Saulez. “But getting down 17, you expend a lot of energy coming back. You can’t get down like that to a team this good.â€
Though Notre Dame extended its lead early in the second half, Trinity suddenly found its scoring touch.
“They came out in the second half and hit every shot. There were threes everywhere,†said Mullins, who welcomes the level of competition their league provides. “It helps playing against good players. All the teams like this, they make us better. They push us to work even harder.â€
And that’s where Miller’s point is driven home. As impressive as Mullins’ performance was, playing the quality of opponents the Irish face in league play alone, one person can’t do it alone.
After being thoroughly dominated by the Titans on the boards in the third quarter, it was Dan Dooley who pulled down a couple of defensive rebounds to get the Irish back on track. His three-ball that finally ended Trinity’s run didn’t hurt either. It seemed to spark the Irish, who outscored their opponents 14-2 over the final five minutes.
“Playing in our home gym, it’s huge,†Dooley said of the victory. “We lost to Holy Trinity in league play so this is a big statement.â€
Notre Dame also got a clutch three from Jordan Scott in the final minute to put the game away after Trinity had pulled with two points. Scott, playing with an injured hand that he had trouble even closing, had been limited to just two points until his game-clinching dagger.
Greg Owens turned in his usual shutdown defensive play, Mike Mullins joined Dooley on the tournament all-star team and as if to prove that they can all shoot, every starter connected at least once from beyond the arc in the final. And they did that with starter Justin Springer sidelined with an injury.
Of course, while his teammates have their areas of expertise, it’s not as though they have to compensate for any deficiencies in Mullins’ game. The tournament MVP led the Irish with seven rebounds and could have been in double figures considering the number of balls he tipped to teammates. He hustled back on defence to swat away a layup attempt by Shakeel Walker. And he punctuated Notre Dame’s strong opening half by pressuring Trinity into a turnover, working a give-and-go with Dooley before finishing with a contested underhanded layup.
And he didn’t do this against some middling .500 team. He did it against the tournament’s top seed, a team that when things shake out at the end of the year will likely have proved itself to be one of the best teams in the province â€" if only Trinity can get out of Halton.
“I’ll say it again,†Miller repeated after Wednesday’s victory. “This is the best league in Ontario. It’s a shame but there’s going to be a great team, maybe two, that don’t even get to OFSAA.â€
The organizers of the Ontario all-Catholic tournament seemed to recognize that. They had already granted Halton a second berth because the league produced last year’s champion. But when the defending champs, Loyola â€" coming off their own weekend victory at the Silver Fox tournament in Hamilton â€" finished third, the organizers granted Halton a third at-large berth in the tournament.
Which means in three weeks time in St. Catharines, Notre Dame, Holy Trinity and Loyola get to do this all again. And then again a week later in the Halton playoffs.
If the Scione tournament is any indication of what we local basketball fans can expect, it should be quite the ride.
No comments:
Post a Comment