Owen Sound Sun Times: Ewasko's Time To Shine For Falcons Basketball Team

Article By:  Bill Walker

In three seasons Ben Ewasko has gone from bench warmer to go-to guy down the stretch.

The OSCVI point guard has been lights out in the early going of the senior boys basketball season, draining 30 points for the Falcons on Tuesday in a 63- 54 win over the West Hill Raiders in their league opener.

"We lost quite a few key guys who we went to OFSAA with last year, so I knew I had to step up and score some points for us," Ewasko said Tuesday.

"I've got four years of experience already, so I think it's my time to put some baskets in the hoop."

Ewasko has been a work in progress for OSCVI.

He rarely left the bench in Grade 11. He improved to a competent floor general with little offensive touch last year in Grade 12. And so far in what's commonly called the victory lap for students returning for a fifth year of high school, Ewasko has shown a nose for the hoop.

"Last year he really took a giant step forward, not really scoring but just running the offense and facilitating things on the floor for everyone else," said Falcons coach Lee Jacques.

"He's now really taking the ball to the lane and his jump shot has come a mile. He's so quick and his energy level is so high that you feel guilty if you're not hustling beside a guy like that."

This was supposed to be a rebuilding year for the Falcons but early results indicate that this project will be done much quicker than the regional rec centre.

"This is a young team and it's supposed to be a down year, so expectations weren't very high," said Jacques, who also got 10 points from Nate Brewitt.

"I think we're going to be OK this year. We might not be as dominant as we have been but we'll be competitive."

Curtis McLeod led the Raiders with 14 points while Nick Lau had 13.

"It was our first game of the season and we obviously had some jitters coming out," said West Hill coach Jeff Nickel.

"I think we proved in the second quarter that we could play with them. We just ran out of gas a little bit at the end because we don't have a very deep bench (with only nine players in the lineup on Tuesday)."

The opposite is true for OSCVI which rotated 11 players throughout the game.

"We just kept sending fresh bodies and fresh bodies and fresh bodies hoping that it would pay off before it was all said and done," said Jacques.

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