Reds win second straight
By Bernie Puchalski - December 8, 2021
It was obvious to anyone watching that Dylan Maltby loves being back on the court with the Denis Morris Reds senior boys basketball team.
“Oh my God. It has been so long. I haven’t played basketball in two years other than playing outside for Pelham,” the 12B student said Wednesday, after leading the Reds to a 57-52 victory over the visiting Blessed Trinity Thunder in Niagara Catholic Athletic Association action. “This is our second game back and I love being back on the court. It has been awhile.”
The 5-foot-11 point guard enjoys playing for the Pelham Panthers but nothing beats suiting up for your high school.
“It is very, very important,” the 18-year-old said. “It is a completely different atmosphere. There’s more people watching and you see your team at school every single day.”
Mike Ukiomogbe and Maltby are two key pieces to the Reds’ roster.
“He (Maltby) is an incredible leader and you can count on him to not only to put the ball in the net but to get his teammates going,” Reds head coach Michael Doodeman said. “He’s reliable and he steps up when we need him.”
Maltby is a more than capable point guard but he likes to look for his shot.
“One hundred per cent. I like the midrange.”
He makes room for himself with a nice fadeaway jumper.
“I got that from my brother. He is the one who taught me that,” Maltby said.
His brother, Devon, played with the Thorold Golden Eagles.
The only goal Maltby has for the Reds is to win.
“I want our team to win as much as possible and I want to push my teammates,” he said. “Basically we want to get after it.”
The Reds improved to 2-0 with the win after opening with a 45-24 victory over Holy Cross last week.
“I am very happy,” said Doodeman, a former high school player at Saint Michael. “We spend about two weeks getting prepared and the boys are starting to come into form.”
He likes what his team is showing.
“We have got hustle, everyone is ready to play for the man who is next to them and we work as a unit.”
After missing last season because of the COVID pandemic, Doodeman isn’t sure how things will go this season.
“I don’t know what the other teams look like so we are just focusing on ourselves and taking it one game at a time.”
The Thunder looked like a team playing its first game of the season Wednesday.
“Our expectations are pretty lofty but we clearly have a lot of work to do,” Blessed Trinity head coach Austin Anderson said. “We had one of our players in a car accident yesterday which set us back quite a bit having to deal with that loss. Everything is OK but we had to rework everything.”
Anderson knows it is all about the process.
“In these first games, it is all about seeing who can play at different positions. It is a real good trial time right now.”
One of the biggest things the Thunder need to find right now is team cohesiveness.
“The last quarter I watched, the press looks nice but there were a lot of lapses that we had,” he said.
Anderson loved being back on the floor.
“I love coaching and it’s one if the things I like to do the most as far as being a teacher,” he said. “They are great guys and I want to go to bat for them all the time but unfortunately I got a double technical and couldn’t see the game to the end.”
No scoring stats were available for the game because they were not recorded on the game sheet.