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CYO All-Playoff
Team
Head Coach-Chris Madison (Andrews
White) This guy just has mastered this league; he knew how to deal with any player of any team all year long.
He just simply carried that into the postseason. Besides their double overtime thriller in the 2nd round against
Ignatius, he made the Final Four and Championship look more than easy. And the scary thing is he did this with a junior team
in a senior oriented league. Expect this guy to come back even stronger next year.
PG-Alex Cherry (Marks White)
He proved that he is a legitimate scoring threat, as well as an elite passer. He single handedly took down a hot Andrews Blue
team, posting 31 points, leading his team to the 2nd round. He knew how to get to the basket and walked into the
lane on numerous trips down the floor. He also almost led an upset of top seeded Ephrems Blue, but fell just 2 points shy.
Overall, he was the difference maker for his team in the postseason.
SG-Nick DeLuca (Andrews White)
Well no surprise here, you’re talking about the playoff MVP here. He took down a dark house in Ignatius Crimson
in the 2nd round, and then single- handed demolished Thomas in the Final Four. He dropped 25 points in the first
half. And to cap it all off, he took his hot streak into Assumption for the championship and capped off their dream season
with a title. His game never looked better during this year’s postseason. He was not intimidated as a junior in the
postseason taking on a bunch of seniors, showed his composure.
SF- Vladamir Alaby (Holy Trinity)
Although he suffered a disappointing senior season from an individual standpoint; his team enjoyed great success. But, in
the playoffs, he just took his game to the next level; after a 1st round bye, then they met Regular season MVP
Jake Freschetti and his Ignatius Red team. It was close all the way but with Alaby’s countless big plays, buckets, steals,
passes, he carried Trinity into the Final Four. He fell 1 point shy of the Championship, even with a loss though, his 2 stellar
playoff games were well recognized.
PF- Evan Garner (Andrews White)
Although he’s mainly used as a center, I had to make run for him and another big guy, so I’ll slide Evan here
to PF. He had an outstanding postseason, in which 2 out of their 3 games he posted double doubles (points and rebounds). He
was certainly a force on the glass, both offensively and defensively. He also showcased his ability to pass the ball as a
big guy; at times he looked like a healthy Chris Webber. He also did not disappear on the offensive side like he has at times
during the regular season. He consistently got involved by receiving excellent passes and posting up, he proved he could be
an integral part of an offense.
C- Rob Banning
(Ephrems Blue) Even if he did suffer a horrific Championship game, anyone would have trouble shooting free throws
while hearing a fog horn go off. He still did his normal thing by grabbing rebounds. He really showcased himself in the 2nd
round and the Final Four. He completely took over their 2nr round win over Marks White, mainly by putting back virtually every
offensive rebound, and by hitting 4 free throws in the last minute and a half. Then against Trinity he fought through a physical
post match up with Trinity’s Andrew Koleski and came out victorious. He proved to be the primary difference maker in
the 2nd round and Final Four for Mike Christman’s group. It’s just a shame he couldn’t handle
the crowd this past Sunday.
1st Round
Marks White 61
Andrews Blue
51
This game came as a surprise to me,
as Kevin Papparella just had the type of day I’m sure he’s begging to forget. He let the massive CEC student section
get to his head. He finished with less than 5 points. The difference in this game was St. Mark point guard Alex Cherry, he
looked like Tony Parker out there, basically walking into the lane, and he finished with a game high 31 points. Rasuel Thomas
played a solid game, he finished with 13 points, posting yet another double-double. Andrew’s coach wore his emotions
on his sleeve, as the game reached the middle of the 4th quarter he saw his team’s Cinderella season coming
to an end. Marks now will have to travel to St. Andrews and play Andrews. That game will take place on Friday. Marks coach
Joe Malone looked very pleased as he added this impressive win to his sparkling resume as a coach of the year candidate.
Cabrini White 60
Ignatius Red 69
Ignatius was not off to a good start, seeing
as before the game, their best player and league MVP candidate Jake Freschetti came down with a case of mono. But, the kid
was a warrior and played through it, and he still posted 16 points against a Cabrini Senior team that put up a hell of a fight.
Cabrini just got off on the wrong foot. Cabrini’s superstar guard John Malloy got off to an ice cold start, posting
only 4 points in the 1st half and receiving a technical within the first 3 minutes of the 1st quarter.
Luckily his running mate Steve Hermann was able to pick him up. In the 2nd half Ignatius just proved to be too
overpowering on the glass. Malloy did manage to catch fire in the 4th quarter, but it just happened to be another
case of too much, too little, too late. Not even the rowdy CEC student section could bring the Crusaders down, although there
were flashes of frustration from Ignatius towards the crowd. Ignatius will now prepare for a Holy Trinity team that is anxious
to hit the floor again.
Charles Gold 60
Johns 53
I only managed to catch half of this game,
but that first half was all that I needed to see. Johns did get off to a quick start in the 1st quarter, hitting
numerous 3 pointers. But, once Charles got Jim Domzalski established in the post, that pretty much marked the end of the game.
But, not only Domzalski, JP Dowling hit some jumpers and grabbed several offensive boards and added put backs. Steve Carroll
was cold from 3 but managed to get himself to the charity stripe. Charles coach Drew Carroll may have sweated a bit throughout
the 2nd half as Johns did manage to at one time make it a 1 point game, but Charles was resilient enough to hold
off and advance to the next round. After a phenomenal 1st half, Domzalski yet again found himself in foul trouble. But Johns
just didn’t have enough left in the arsenal, Rick Horn was held out due to his ankle, and the kid with the elbow pad
just didn’t have it in him to pull it out. Charles now takes on a St. Thomas team led by Tom Kovack and crew; this should
be an intriguing match up of coaches, Drew Carroll and Tom Kovack Sr.
Grace 45
Ignatius Crimson 57
Grace was simply just overpowered in this playoff meeting, even
with the support of the home crowd and the Gator (Joe McAnany). Ignatius just came out firing on all cylinders and just never
seemed to look back. I did not actually attend this game, but what I’m saying here is all based on accounts of people
that did attend the game. Ignatius held a 14-point edge heading into the 4th quarter, and that just proved to be
too much for Grace to overcome. Joe Kelly just didn’t have the right plays at the right times. And missing Joe O’Brien
with an ankle injury didn’t help their cause. And to top it all off, Grace forward Mike Rongione was tossed from the
game in the 4th quarter for tackling a kid. Nothing went right in Gator Nation. The Crimson Tide roll on to take
on the #2 seeded Andrews White team. I’m sure Nick DeLuca is licking his chops to play some playoff ball on his home
court.
Final Four
Trinity 41
Ephrems Blue 42
This was just another game in the playoff pattern, highly intense,
and down to literally the last second. This year’s playoffs are by far the best, and most exciting that I’ve ever
witnessed. The level of competition is by far more than I could have ever imagined. But anyways, in the first half it was
a slow paced low tempo game, but the tension was very high. The first time these 2 teams met was in the very beginning of
the year, with Trinity prevailing 33-32 in a defensive struggle. This game was also a defensive struggle, as it ended up 42-41.
I’m going to cut right to the 2nd half, since that’s where the action was. During the 4th
quarter, Ryan Dolan of Ephrems set a pic on Trinity’s Vladamir Alaby, literally flipping him over. Much to the dismay
of the Trinity bench, all whistles were silent. And with just about 7 seconds left, Ephrems fouled Trinity’s Mike Thomas
and sent him to the foul line. Trinity was down 1 at the time and Mike Thomas downed both to put Trinity up 1. After an Ephrems
timeout they drove it down court and a lucky lay up just rolled in off of the fingertips of Ryan Dolan to send Ephrems to
the championship.
They will seek their 2nd consecutive 11th-12th
grade CYO championship.
Player of the Game
Ryan Dolan (Ephrems Blue)
Andrews White 66
Thomas 36
Blowout. Simply put. This one was over from the opening tip, the
CEC Student Section (and 1 Tech kid) got into both the ref’s heads and the whole St. Thomas team. From that point on,
there was no hope for the Titans. After numerous chants and a 21-4 deficit after the 1st quarter, Thomas saw their
championship hopes dwindling away. The main reason for Andrews 1st half offensive outburst was All CYO 1st
teamer Nick DeLuca; he dropped 25 points in the 1st half alone, including 6 three pointers. Evan Garner of Andrews
completely controlled the middle; grabbing numerous offensive rebounds and putting them right back up for easy deuces. For
Thomas there was not much to talk about, except for the non-stop shooting of Mike Stumpf. He put on an Allen Iverson like
display (a lot of points, a lot of shots, low shooting %). Coach Chris Madison seemed to be very impressed on his team’s
effort throughout the whole game, and if they can play like that on Sunday at Assumption against Ephrems, bringing home the
championship should be a cinch.
Co-Players of the Game
Nick DeLuca (Andrews White)/The
Student Section
Championship Game
Ephrems Blue 34
Andrews White 55
The highly anticipated match up of these two fundamental juggernauts was not
as close as some would think. Throughout the first quarter, Ephrem’s just did not seem like their normal selves, defensively
they just got picked apart by the precision passing by Andrews. Some of this may be due in part that the student section showed
up once again, and although not the largest one ever, they certainly established their presence early and often, much like
Evan Garner in the middle for Ephrems. Foul shooting usually plays a big part of games, especially when it comes to playoff
time, and Ephrems was just simply off the mark all day. Rob Banning grabbed boards, as he usually did all year long; but had
trouble putting them back up. He did however get to the charity stripe often, but many times could not capitalize, mainly
because of the noise. Nick DeLuca used his court vision to have a field day; finding the open man on numerous occasions, Mike
Wojchiek (don’t know the spelling) was the main recipient of many of these interior post passes, and he certainly made
Ephrems pay for their defensive breakdown. Andrews was up 11 at the half, and Ephrems did manage to take it down to 5 at one
point, but another big Andrews run eventually put the game out of reach. It came out to be about a 20 point win for Andrews,
it seemed as if as soon as Ryan Dolan of Ephrems fouled out, that was the nail in the proverbial coffin. It was a hard fought
game for both teams. In the end, all that came out of it was a lot of tension between the student section and the Ephrems
fans (mostly parents and one 19 year old); a playoff MVP in Nick DeLuca, and a championship to Newtown.
Player(s) of the Game
Nick DeLuca,
Evan Garner, Mike Wojchiek, the Student Section
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