For the first time in the 47-year history of the Kennedy Memorial Invitational tournament, the Bishop Tonnos Titans got to hoist the championship trophy.
And proud to be part of the winning team was coach Wayne Comeau.
"It feels great," Comeau said after Tonnos defeated St. John's College Eagles, 51-47, in Saturday's final.
Eight junior boys' high school basketball teams took part in the popular two-day All-Catholic competition held annually at St. Thomas More Catholic Secondary School.
"It's the year that I'm going to retire so this is a great accomplishment for me," Comeau explained. "I've never really coached a junior championship team in anything.
"I've had some success, but never a championship of this calibre."
Comeau is a Job Coach at Tonnos. And he's been at the Ancaster school for 23 years.
In addition to downing St. John's, the Titans chalked up wins against St. Catharines Phoenix, 94-42, and Oakville's Holy Trinity Titans, 74-44.
"We were really good in the first two games, but in the third game we didn't play as well as we could," tournament MVP Christian Ball of the Titans said. "We could have been more aggressive and got more boards. It was against a harder team, though. At the end of the day we got it done."
St. John's was up 18-17 at the half and held a 37-33 advantage heading into the fourth quarter.
Ball paced the Titans attack with 19 points. Keegan Green chipped in with 14 points and Jasiah Ampansah added nine.
Sam Bernardi scored 14 points and Demarcus Graham tossed in 13 for the Eagles, who earlier scored wins over the St. Thomas More Knights (67-62) and Milton's St. Francis Xavier Knights, (70-69 in OT).
"Sometimes you get into games where it feels like you're not getting the calls," Comeau said. "That's when you've got to rely on your mental toughness. You've got to say 'I don't care what the obstacles are, I'm going to overcome them.' So I think that's what we were able to do."
Ball, a Grade 9 student, said he was a tournament MVP once before -- at a rep tournament in Ohio as a member of Blessed Sacrament. He scored 32 points and 21 points in Tonnos' opening games on Friday.
Said Comeau: "Christian is a game-saver. He makes plays out of nowhere. He's very athletic, but he's also got a lot of basketball smarts. So when you put the two of them together, that's a formidable player."
Green, who netted 12 and 25 points in the first two games, was selected to the first all-star team.
"Keegan is a great shooter," the Titans coach said. "He's a shooting guard and a point guard, a combination you don't find too often. And he does a great job at both."
The consolation title went to St. Thomas More. After losing to the Eagles, the Knights topped Welland Dame, 67-49, and followed that up with a 79-58 decision over the St. Michael's Raiders.
"Across the board my whole team played well," More coach LeRoy Douglas said. "We had two players on the second all-star team but we could have easily had four."
Tonnos currently leads the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic standings with a record of 10-1. St. Thomas More, tied for fifth place, has a league mark of 3-7.
Junior playoffs begin Monday, Feb. 9.
"We've done really well outside our league," Douglas added. "Of our four tournaments, we've had two first-place finishes, a second and a third."
Other Father Kennedy first-team all-star choices were Berardi and Demarcus Graham of St. John's, Kaiden Nelson of St. Francis Xavier and Kohen Morgan of Holy Trinity.
Second-team all-stars included two members of the host Knights -- Nelijah Bernard and Isaiah Audain. Others making the second- team squad were: Austin Munroe, Toronto St. Michael's; Dexter Frank, St. Francis Phoenix; Oliver Szymanski, Welland Notre Dame.
The George Luciani Defensive MVP was Drayden Kerridge of St. John's
See photos on HWCDSB Athletics Facebook Page: STM vs St. Michael's | BT vs St. John's
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