St. Clair College invited Canadian high school basketball players into their gym as they were the host for the 29th annual Freeds Tip Off Tournament.

The Freeds tournament, run by Catholic Central high school (CCH) and their head coach, Peter Cusumano, hosted some of the best schools in the province as it does every year. This year’s tournament contained 15 teams from Ontario, including six local teams and one team from Quebec. This year’s installment of the tournament also hosted six schools who were past champions.

Of the local schools in the Freeds tournament only F.J. Brennan Catholic high school and Sandwich Secondary lost both of their games on the first day of the tournament, placing them in the exhibition bracket for day two. Brennan’s Landon Porter scored 34 points in his schools opening 60-54 loss to Sarnia St. Patrick.

W.C. Kennedy Collegiate and Holy Names Catholic high school split their games in pool play, going 1-1 and advancing to the bronze bracket. Both schools would meet in the bronze bracket consolation where the Holy Names Knights would prevail 56-43. Reigning Windsor Essex County Secondary School Athletic Association Mr. Basketball award winner Isaiah Famillia dropped 25 points for the Knights.

St. Anne Catholic high school also split their game but was able to advance to the silver bracket where they would win the silver finals. Ryan Kiss had 24 pints for the Saints in that game. The only local team to win both their first day games was Windsor’s defending city champions CCH Comets going 2-0 and advancing to the gold bracket.

After Friday’s docket of games all the teams were invited to the Caboto Club for the tournaments annual banquet. Former Detroit Lions kicker Eddie Murray was the guest speaker for the evening as he spoke on mental health issues. AM800’s Steve Bell was the master of ceremonies.

After a disappointing loss to Pickering Pine Ridge in the gold bracket semi-finals the CCH Comets awaited the final of the game between Oakville Holy Trinity and five time defending champion Toronto St. Michael’s. Behind Jahmal Abbey’s 22 points St. Michaels would advance to the finals of the gold bracket setting up and gold consolation matchup between CCH and Holy Trinity for third place overall in the tournament.

Entering the game with a different energy CCH took the floor looking to come home with nothing less than third place. Najee Henderson-Brown scored 21 points in the game leading his team and controlling the offense. Strong defensive and rebounding performances were turned in by Donald Mensah and Jonathan Nicola respectively. A dominating performance by the Comets led them to a 62-52 win over Holy Trinity.

Following the third place game was the tournament finals. The first half saw five lead changes as St. Michael’s held a 25-21 lead going into the locker rooms at halftime. The Blue Raiders came out of the break looking to put the game away and they began to do so, jumping to a 40-28 lead early in the fourth quarter forcing Pine Ridge to take a time out. With under a minute to go in the third quarter St. Michael’s was battling for the loose ball when they gained possession and found their top scorer Danillo Djuricic in the paint. All alone, Djuricic slammed down a rim rattling dunk that energized his team and made the score 42-29 in favour of St. Michael’s.

“I had to do whatever I needed to get done in order for us to win. Be a leader on the court, do what I had to do on offense and defence,” said Djuricic

A late rally by Pine Ridge was to no avail as Toronto St. Michael’s captured their sixth consecutive Freeds Tip Off tournament. St. Michaels basketball has owned Windsor in recent years and is now 38-0 in the city over the past six years.

St. Michael’s head coach Jeff Zownir is very proud that his team was able to continue their streak and bring the tournament gold back to Toronto.

“It’s a tough tournament. We are very proud of the tradition,” said Zownir, “The fact that it is six years means its new kids and I think it says something about our program in terms of the level we are trying to get to and maintain.

After the games first and second team tournament all-stars were awarded. Receiving second team honours were Manny Agong of the CCH Comets and Darius Thorne of Pine Ridge. First team all-stars were given to CCH’s Najee Brown-Henderson, St. Michael’s Jamal Abbey-Wright, Pine Ridge’s Jordan Henry and Ryan Kiss of St. Anne. The tournament’s Most Valuable Player was Danilo Djuricic from Toronto St. Michael’s after recording 20 points, 12 rebounds and six blocks in the finals.

Next season’s tournament will be the 30th installment since Catholic Central won the first Freeds Tip Off tournament in 1987. CCH head coach and tournament organizer Peter Cusumano already has his sights on making next year’s tournament one of the best yet.

“It’s one of the elite tournaments in the province, that’s why the top teams in the province come here. We are looking at trying to get a few more quality teams, we are looking at a couple teams from Quebec that might want to come down and improve the quality of the tournament.” said Cusumano.

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