Jonas Emilsson
www.KramMag.com

Anthony Manful’s defense had been a thorn in the sides of the St. Mary’s Saints throughout the entire game.

And on a fumbled inbounds pass with just 25 seconds to play in an extremely tight quarter-final match between the Notre Dame Pride and the St. Mary’s Saints, Manful made perhaps the most important defensive play of the game by pouncing on a bungled in-bounds pass to negate the Saints’ last-ditch effort to tie the game.

On top of making the key defensive play, Manuful was also tasked with stopping Aloysius Callaghan, the Saints’ most dangerous scorer.

“He did a wonderful job on him,” said Pride’s head coach Mike McFarland. “But in spite of that, I bet the kid still had seven threes out there. I thought he did a really good job, and the big steal when we’re up by three at the end of the game, he played a great game.”

Click HERE for action photos from this game.

Callaghan didn’t finish with seven three pointer on his own, but that is how many shots the Saints hit from beyond the arc in the first half.

Josh Jebose and David Lodovica each scored 24 points as the Pride earned a date with the Bishop Grandin Ghosts on Thursday night in semi-final action thanks to their 77-71 victory over the Saints.

Nick Ettinger led the Saints with 18 points.

The Pride’s win was another step in the right direction for a team that’s flown slightly under the radar for most of the season despite beating the league’s powerhouses Western Canada Redmen and the Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs this season.

After trailing 35-34 at half, the Pride deployed a dominant down-low game centred around Jebose, who took control of the paint to score 16 second-half points.

When Jebose wasn’t muscling his way to the basket on the offensive side, he was blocking or altering shots on the defensive side.

“We knew they were going to pack it in down low, but they were doubling and tripling him down there, and he still found a way to get the ball and make some tough shots,” said McFarland. “The kid has come a long way and he’s a big-time ball player. I don’t think a lot of people know about him, but this kid can play.”

Things didn’t look good for the Pride early in the fourth quarter when their dynamic scorer Abe Aden picked up his fifth foul.

Aden entered the fourth quarter with four fouls, which McFarland was well aware of.

“You know what, the third quarter just ended and we said to Abe that we were going to play a two-three zone to keep him in the game, and what does he do? He comes out and bumps a kid 40 feet from the hole,” explained McFarland.

“We all looked and thought ‘boy we’re in trouble’. But give the kids that came in credit, we hung around and that’s what we were looking to do.”

The loss was a huge let-down for the Saints, who had high hopes coming into the playoffs after running off six straight regular season victories.

“I was a great game, an up and down game,” said Saints’ head coach Earl Amankwah. “I don’t think either team pushed the lead past eight points and we came up just short at the end.”

“We had some real good looks at some shots that we didn’t make, and that’s our game, we’re a three-point shooting team and they were falling for us in the first three quarters but they just weren’t falling in the fourth quarter.”

“We have to give credit to Notre Dame. They pressured us and we turned the ball over.”

Amankwah also recognized how his team struggled to contain Jebose in the second half.

“Josh went to work on us down low,” explained the form Saints player. “We contained him in the second half but he went to work on us in the second half, so that was good of him.”

The winner of the Pride verses Ghosts semi-final will take on the winner of the other semi final between the Redmen and the Bulldogs, who play on Thursday night at Western Canada High School.

Other scores from Tuesday night playoff action:

Senior Boys
Henry Wise Wood 98 Wililam Aberhart 58
Bowness 96 Centennial 75
Lester B. Pearson 87 Dr. E.P. Scarlett 82
Crescent Heights 83 St. Martin de Porres 26
Bishop Grandin 80 Bishop McNally 68
Western Canada 79 Father Lacombe 67
Notre Dame 77 St. Mary’s 71
St. Francis 83 Lord Beaverbrook 76
Queen Elizabeth 97 Forest Lawn 56
Sir Winston Churchill 78 Bishop O’Byrne 55

Senior Girls
St. Francis 86 Henry Wise Wood 48
Crescent Heights 86 Father Lacombe 34
Ernet Manning 81 St. Martin dePorres 27
Centennial 75 William Aberhart 39
St. Mary’s 77 Sir Winston Churchill 72
Bishop McNally 62 James Fowler 45
Western Canada 74 Dr. E.P. Scarlett 59
Bishop Carroll 57 Lester B. Pearson 43
Bishop O’Byrne 68 John G. Diefenbaker 53
Notre Dame 41 Lord Beaverbrook 35