Article By: Gavin Crites
The Brantford Collegiate Institute Mustangs are on their way to the Brant County senior girls basketball semifinal after beating the Pauline Johnson Collegiate Thunderbirds 30-25 in the quarterfinals Tuesday night.
The Mustangs will play the Green Eagles on Thursday at St. John's. In the other senior semifinal Thursday, the Assumption College Lions will meet the Trojans at North Park Collegiate. Both games start at 7 p.m.
On Tuesday, the T-Birds jumped out to an early lead in the first quarter and did a better job than the Mustangs of holding onto the ball. But two timely three-point field goals from BCI's Megan Melling closed the gap and seemed to settle down the Mustangs.
"We were really, really nervous," said BCI coach Ron Jamula. "Especially our kids who don't have a lot of basketball experience."
"Those two threes early... that really had us calm down a bit."
Turnovers were an issue for both teams in a game that went back and forth and came down to the last minute.
Down by three, the T-Birds had plenty of opportunities to tie the game late in the fourth, but failed to connect from behind the arc.
BCI was holding onto a 28-25 point lead with 39 seconds left when Cara Humenik was fouled to stop the clock. Humenik stepped up to the line and went one for two, extending BCI's lead to four.
After PJ missed a field goal, the T-Birds were forced to foul Melling with 12 seconds left on the clock. Melling again hit one of two from the line, securing the game for BCI.
Melling led the Mustangs in scoring with 12 points, while Chelsea Biggs led the T-Birds with 13.
"It was stressful but it was a lot of fun," said Humenik.
"It was a really close game. It was pretty much neck and neck the whole time. We'd pull ahead and then they'd pull ahead."
"When (those free throws) went in it was like a weight being lifted off your chest," she said.
BCI and PJ, being the fourth and fifth-seeded teams respectively, knew going into the game it would be competitive.
"We're two really evenly matched teams and every game was progressively closer," said PJ coach Neal Stamer. "They outplayed us tonight and that's a credit to their players and their coaches."
"Sometimes the ball doesn't want to go in the hole," Stamer added.
In the junior girls semifinal, BCI will host North Park and St. John's will host Assumption. Both games start at 5: 30 p.m. Thursday.
TUESDAY SENIOR ACS over PDHS 58-14. ACS leading scorers: Rebecca Couperis 14, Jerika Baldin 13, Abbey Heron 10. PDHS leading scorers: Hayley Parker 5, Julia Hmiel 4, Emma Perry 4 JUNIOR NPC over PJC 34-6. PJC leading scorers: Shelby Laughlin 4 and Megan Bains 2. NPC leading scorers: Bec Adkins 6, Paige Harrington 6, Hattie Osborne 5, Jasneet Dhanoa 5 ACS over PDHS. Result not reported by press time.
Photo Credit: Brian Thompson/Brantford Expositor
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