Captains/Veterans basketball classic a slam dunk success

Woodstock CI’s Will Halward was presented the TVRA South East Mr. Basketball Award at halftime of the senior boys’ Captains/Veterans game by coach/game convenor Eric Molinaro. Molinaro was also pleased to report the event raised over $1,100 for the Terry Fox Foundation, donated in honour of Captains/Veterans founder Bill Gillespie. (Jeff Tribe photo)

Jeff Tribe, Echo Correspondent

Janse Jorgensen’s dunk may not have been ‘picture’ perfect.

But it was a legitimate live-action TVRA South East Captains/Veterans Junior Boys’ Basketball slam.

And despite not ‘posterizing’ an opponent (dunking over a defender), it was good enough to earn props from Woodstock Huron Park Junior Huskies teammate Carter D’Entremont.

“The Parkside one had a dude in it, this was wide open,” D’Entremont explained. “Still a good dunk though - he got it down.”

Both Huskies had their moments in a 55-46 loss to the Blue Team (Woodstock St. Mary’s, Woodstock CI, Ingersoll DCI, Lord Dorchester), D’Entremont opening White Team (Huron Park, Woodstock College Avenue, Tillsonburg Glendale, Lord Dorchester) scoring with a three-point field goal. Jorgensen would finish with five points, including a dunk toward the end of the fourth quarter. He had ‘eight or nine’ slams during the regular season, adding the Captains/Veterans dunk competition victory to cap a solid HPSS season.

“The (basketball) community made it fun,” said Jorgensen. “Everyone was like, we’re getting together and all playing. I liked that part of it.”

After not winning a regular-season game the season before, the Huskies finished 6-2 in their 2024/25 campaign, beating St. Thomas Parkside in their first round of playoffs before losing to eventual TVRA South East champion St. Thomas St. Joe’s.

“In our minds we won,” smiled Jorgensen. “Because we played with our hearts.”

The same sentiment might have been expressed by St. Mary’s guard/forward Destiny Omirigbe, whose Warriors were also defeated by St. Joe’s, both in the TVRA South East and Western Ontario Secondary Schools Athletic Association AA finals.

The first outing wasn’t their best, said Omirigbe, but the Warriors rebounded to play much better at WOSSAA, with contributions from everyone.

“We cleaned it up in the second to get a silver medal.”

Omigribe had four points in the Captains/Veterans game with Warriors teammates Travis Martens (2) and Johnny Bertoia (12) also hitting the scoresheet.

“This was fun,” said Bertoia, enjoying both the Captains/Veterans experience and a regular season finished off with WOSSAA silver.

“We started a little slowly but picked it up.”

WCI’s Oscar Berkeley earned his squad’s MVP honours with a 16-point performance, Dorchester’s Curtis Willick added two and IDCI Blue Bombers Carter Minielly and Gavin Laidman six and eight, respectively.

“A good time,” summed up Laidman, having fun teaming up with players from other teams. “And getting to freestyle a bit.”

Representatives from the homecourt WCI Red Devils put their stamp on the senior contest, stroking 10 first-half three-point field goals to give Team White (WCI, Dorchester, Huron Park) a 61-45 advantage at the break. They extended the lead to 89-67 by three-quarter time, but Team Blue (CASS, Ingersoll DCI, Tillsonburg Glendale) enjoyed a 37-23 fourth quarter run which tightened the gap to an entertaining 112-104 final.

“It’s better when it’s competitive,” said Red Devil guard/forward Preston Hilderley. “Everyone who watched enjoyed it and had a good time.”

Hilderley finished with two treys and the senior game’s lone dunk.

“Got higher on that one than I thought,” he smiled, pleased to put the ball down during live action, while taking nothing away from the halftime dunk competition.

“It’s hard, fair enough,” he said, giving the three competitors credit for style points. “Guys out there trying 360s, windmills.”

IDCI’s Qurron Kelly was one of the crowd-pleasers, getting above the rim to put down a couple of slams.

“Tonight was just to have fun,” he said.

“It was all around energetic, I would say,” agreed College Avenue’s Nick Mobarak. “Just a fun game. Not a lot of defence but keeps everybody playing in a fun way.”

Mobarak scored ten points for the Blue Team, CASS teammate Craig Sutherland had an even dozen, Jake Hawkeswood 18, Devon Fordham 14 and Essen Mohamed two. Kelly had six and IDCI teammate Nathan Kapitor added five. Tillsonburg Glendale’s Lucas Sandham took Blue Team MVP honours with a team-high 30, including 14 in the fourth-quarter run.

Will Halward, following in his elder brother Jaxson’s footsteps, accepted the TVRA South East Mr. Basketball honour from WCI coach Eric Molinaro at halftime, pacing all scorers with 30 points in what might or might not be his final high school hoops outing.

“To be continued,” he smiled.

WCI’s Derek Gravel earned White Team MVP honours with a 17-point performance fuelled by five treys, Red Devils Kyle Wettlaufer and Zach Molinaro added three and two of the team’s 16 three-pointers overall. Dorchester’s Jaden Sebinagena had 18 points, teammate Cam Avey 11 and Huron Park Huskies Aiden Menton and Garret Foster four and nine, respectively.

“Lots of points, lots of shooting,” said Aiden Menton.

“I liked the passing too,” added Foster. “At the end of the day, everyone was chill. It was a lot of fun.”

“Everyone was involved,” Menton agreed.