THUNDER BAY – Matt Erdman said he’s been waiting all season for Jayme Koski to have a break-out performance.
He picked the perfect time to answer the call.
The 6-foot-6 fifth-year senior had the game of his life on Tuesday night, scoring 32 points and hauling in 18 rebounds to lead the St. Ignatius Falcons to a fourth straight senior boys’ high school basketball title, downing the Sir Winston Churchill Trojans 71-60.
“It feels great,” said the soft-spoken forward, who had to put the Falcons on his back in the final minutes of a game that saw the Trojans score the first 11 points of the fourth quarter to whittle a 16-point St. Ignatius lead to five.
Normally that’s guard Jared Kreiner’s job.
After all, he did record a 50-point game already this playoff season.
But Kreiner found himself in foul trouble early and a fourth-quarter technical for staring down a Trojan player led to him fouling out with 4:18 to go and Churchill trailing by just seven.
“For me it was grinding out the win. When Jared went out I just tried to calm the game down and run the clock down to get the win,” said Koski, who had 18 points at the half.
Erdman, the Falcons coach, knew his veteran forward had it in him.
“We’ve tried to get Jayme to have those kinds of games all year,” said Erdman, also an assistant with the Lakehead Thunderwolves men’s team.
“I’m glad it finally came and hopefully he can continue doing that. He stepped up when he needed to. I find that knowing you’re in your last year and you don’t have many opportunities left, the urgency is kind of paramount. He definitely rose to the occasion tonight and was clearly the best player on the floor tonight.”
The win came anything but easily.
A Koski bucket in the first gave St. Ignatius a 19-12 lead, but the team that had scored 198 points in two previous playoff outings, stalled offensively the rest of the opening quarter and the Trojans closed the gap to two.
In the second, Koski nailed a reverse lay-up to extend the St. Ignatius lead to eight, 29-21, but Churchill kept hanging around and Bryce Foster hit a clutch three late in the half to send it to the break with the Falcons up just 34-31.
St. Ignatius used a 12-0 spurt to up their lead to 13 in the third, which Koski helped reach 16 by quarters end, drawing a foul on a made basket and hitting the ensuing free throw to put the Falcons up 59-43 and seemingly well on their way to another high school crown.
But led by Damian Hernandez and Hendrik Stam, the Trojans stormed back, looking for a way to extend the final to a winner-take-all match on Wednesday in the double-elimination format.
“We ran out of gas, absolutely,” said Trojans coach Cory Keeler. “It was fitness and not having enough bodies. We’re a school of 400 kids … I thought we battled back and through we played hard, considering the last game was such a blowout.”
The game was the final senior boys basketball game in school history, Churchill scheduled to close in June.
The Trojans climbed to within six, but the Falcons scored the final five points of the night to claim the 11-point win.
Next up is a best-of-three NWOSSA championship on the road against Dryden.
