Guelph Mercury: D10 MVP Sterne Will Be Returning For Another Year

Article By:  Rob Massey

GUELPH — Erik Sterne of the Centennial Spartans picked up one District 10 high school senior boys’ basketball award last night, but the Grade 12 student said he’ll be back next season to try to win the one he really wants.

“I will be returning for another year,” Sterne said. He was presented with the D10 league MVP award prior to Friday night’s D10-D8 all-star game at the Mitchell Athletics Centre, won 88-87 by D8.

“It’s great to get the MVP award, but I’m always looking for a championship. All I hope is that for next year, my final year, I can pull out a championship for my team.”

This season, Centennial was knocked out of the D10 playoffs in the semifinals. Sterne played in the 2011 D10 final, but the Spartans were defeated by the Ross Royals in that game.

In Friday’s all-star game, D8 led 24-19 at the end of the first quarter and 44-42 at the half and 68-64 after the third quarter.

Mike Friesen of Ross led D10 with 13 points including four on a pair of monster dunks while Evan Karl of Ross and Mike Finoro of Lourdes netted 12 apiece. Reid Goindi of Centre Wellington and Sterne had 10 each while Aleks Kludjerovic of Centennial and Shamlo Saeed of Ross collected eight apiece, Tim Francis of Centre Wellington and Ben King of Lourdes had four each, Maximillian Raab of Lourdes had three and Jesse Kendall of Bishop Macdonell had two. Also playing in the game were Justin Levesque of Orangeville, Nick Pellizzari of St. James and Andrew Hood of Guelph CVI.

“I know a lot of these guys from playing with them in club ball or anywhere else,” Sterne said of playing in the all-star game. “We all know each other. We know what our strengths are, but we come to have fun. If things go wrong, we’re not too worried. We’re just having fun.”

“It’s easy (to coach in the all-star game),” D10 coach Scott Robinson of the champion Lourdes Crusaders said. “I can sit back and enjoy the game and see some of the best players in our league all come together.”

Cam Gibbs of Resurrection collected 18 points for D8 while Alex Thompson of St. Mary’s had 14, Santo 

Dak of St. Benedict 12 and Cory Kenning of Resurrection 10.

Game MVPs were Saeed for D10 and Thompson for D8.

The game featured the 24-second clock, something that could be brought into the high school game in the next year or two. Currently there is no time limit other than 10 seconds to get the ball out of your own end.

“I like the 24-second clock,” Sterne said. “I believe it speeds the game up and that’s the way basketball was meant to be played.”

For most of the players in the all-star game, the 24-second clock was nothing new. Most play club ball and the clock and FIBA rules are used there. They’re also used in Canadian university play.

“It totally changes the strategy,” Robinson said. “A lot of the time if you’re playing with a 24-second clock, you have to design your plays to get quicker scores. You can’t run a clock for 40, 50 seconds trying to get one good layup or one good three-point shot.”

D10 won the junior all-star match 93-62. The hosts held quarter leads of 21-12, 45-31 and 68-49.

Michael Ganson of Bishop Mac was presented with the D10 league MVP award before the game.

Mo Hussien of Ross led D10 in the game with 21 points while Ganson had 16 and Tommy Yanchus of Ross 14.

Nathan Riley of St. Mary’s had 17 points for D8 while schoolmate Mike Blumel added 12.

Game MVPs were Hussien of D10 and Riley of D8.

Retrieved From:  http://www.guelphmercury.com/sports/highschool/article/693246--d10-mvp-sterne-will-return-for-another-shot-at-title