Working Overtime

Jonas Emilsson
www.KramMag.com

The last thing the Notre Dame Pride needed on Monday night was for their game against the Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs was to go into overtime.

After arriving in town late Sunday night after competing in the BRIT Tournament in Bedford, Saskatchewan they were forced to square off against their North Division rival in a key game between two undefeated teams.

Through four quarters the legs were good, but the extra five minutes of overtime may have been a bit too much as the Bulldogs escaped with a narrow 81-80 win to improve their record to 4-0.

The Pride’s record fell to 4-1 with the loss.

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Emmett Cook’s two 3-pointers early in the overtime period played a big role in the Bulldogs jumping out to an early 9-point lead, and as it turned out, they needed every one of them thanks to a furious late rally by the Pride.

Cook finished with 22 points to pace the Bulldogs’ scoring, followed closely by Adonis Monfort-Palomino’s 20 points.

Emmanuel Joshua scored 24 points and Kingsley Robert-Ezenta scored 21 points to lead the Pride.

The sensational ending was a fitting way for a see-saw game to conclude considering neither team managed to hold a double-digit lead.

The Bulldogs held a 19-10 lead after the 1st quarter, but the Pride rallied in the 2nd quarter to grab to a 32-29 halftime lead.

Each team took turns holding the lead in a back-and-forth 3rd quarter which ended with the Pride leading 53-51.

Monfort-Palomino appeared to have given the Bulldogs the winning basket with less than 30 seconds to play thanks to a pretty running bank shot, but Pride forward Coel Bazinet tied the game in the final seconds to send the game into overtime.

The intense tip-off to final buzzer action was a treat for the fans in attendance, and according to Cooke, an fun game to play in.

“I love those games,” said Cook. “We had a double-overtime win against Western right before Christmas break so all of our guys knew what we had to do in that situation and we came up big when we needed to.”

According to Bulldog’s head coach Morgan Tudor, the matchup against the Pride was a guaranteed slugfest considering the talent level on both squads.

“There’s a few of them that we circled on the calendar this year and that was one of them,” said Tudor. “The North (Division) is incredibly competitive this year and I firmly believe you need to finish in the top two to go far, and that means you have to win the big games. We just told the boys tonight that this is one you have to have, it’s in your own gym and make it happen.”

They made it happen, but Tudor wasn’t exactly pleased with his team’s over all performance.

“I’m not going to lie, I don’t know that we played our best game,” said Tudor. “We had a lot of mental mistakes, I know the team can play better than that and I know they can shoot better than that. They stepped up when they had to and hit some big threes in overtime and got it done, that’s all you can ask.”

Nobody stepped up bigger than Bulldogs’ point guard Adonis Monfort-Palomino. The shifty grade-10 player put up 17 second half points to go along with a handful of dimes.

Monfort-Palomino’s performance was sizzling when the chips were on the line, which becomes even more impressive when you consider the fact that he should be lacing up his sneakers for his school’s junior team instead of leading the senior team to a victory against a hungry and talented rival.

“Adonis carried us a lot and he helped us out this game and he hit some key shots when he needed to, especially in overtime when we got that nine-point lead right off the bat,” said Cook.

Tudor echoed Cook’s praise for Monfort-Palomino.

“The scary thing is that he’s in grade 10,” gushed Tudor. “He’s one of the best grade-10s that I have seen in a long time and asking a grade 10 player to play point guard at this level is not an easy thing. I think Adonis has stepped up and shown us that he can handle the pressure.”

Tudor has been around long enough to witness exceptionally talented high basketball players in the province, and he firmly believes that Monfort-Palomino’s talents are as good as anyone he’s seen in a long time.

“I thought he put us on his shoulders and that’s unusual for a grade-10 player,” said Tudor. “I go back ten years and try to think of any grade-10s that have made any kind of impact at the point guard position at this level, and Jimmy Ralph and the little McMurray kid from Cardston both started in grade 10 and I don’t believe they were as good as Adonis is right now, and they turned out to be phenomenal players.”

Heady praise for Monfort-Palomino, but if his performance Monday night is any indication of what he’s capable of high school basketball fans are in for a treat over the next three years.