FERGUS — Erica McFadden found enough room in the lane and her shooting touch in time to lift the Centre Wellington Falcons to Saturday night’s District 10 high school senior girls’ basketball final.
Thursday, McFadden hit for a game-high 16 points to lead the second-place Falcons to a 45-44 semifinal victory over the third-place Ross Royals.
“I finally got my head wrapped around,” she said after the game. “I was frustrated with myself, but I managed to work it out and I got back in my groove.”
She had been bothered by earlier shots that hadn’t fallen.
“I didn’t make my shots very well,” she said. “I was missing a lot.”
The Falcons have been playing without Jaime Janssen since she was sidelined with a season-ending concussion three weeks ago. She had been Centre Wellington’s leading scorer. Her absence has meant others have had to step forward.
“Since that time, everything has gotten tougher for us,” Centre Wellington coach Keith Cressman said. “During that period, we’ve played from behind a number of times and we’ve come back in several games, come back and won after trailing, sometimes trailing large. I think that was actually a really good preparation for this game because the girls all knew what they had to do in a close game and that’s stay with it possession after possession after possession.”
The Falcons will meet the fourth-place Guelph CVI Green Gaels in the championship match as they nipped the reigning champion Bishop Macdonell Celtics, the first-place finishers, 35-34 in Thursday’s other semifinal.
Lindsay Thompson led GCVI with 14 points while Sierra McLaren had 10.
Alison Morris had 11 points for Bishop Mac while Logan Lane netted nine.
Bishop Mac completed the regular season atop the standings at 13-1 while the Green Gaels finished at 8-6. During the regular season, the Gaels lost twice to the Celtics — 51-37 Oct. 12 and 47-35 Nov. 4.
At Fergus, Ross trailed early but refused to go away. Centre Wellington led 14-6 after the first quarter, 18-13 at the half and 25-23 after three quarters before the teams went on a scoring spree in the final quarter.
The Falcons led by a single point with 2:07 to go before McFadden drove through the paint for a basket and also sank three foul shots. Another basket by Brenann Francis gave Centre Wellington an eight-point lead with 1:18 to go.
But Ross chipped away, sinking four foul shots before McFadden scored the eventual game-winning basket, a foul shot with 53 seconds to go.
The Royals closed the gap on field goals by Kelly Dunk and Silvie Cafarella, but time ran out before they could pull even.
Francis netted 11 points for the Falcons while Chelsea Riepert had 9.
Sydney Resch had 11 points for the Royals while Cafarella had nine, Vanessa Martini eight and Carolyn Holmes six.
This season is McFadden’s first in District 10 as her family recently moved into the Fergus area from the Chatham area.
“It’s a lot tougher (here),” she said of the basketball.
Centre Wellington and GCVI met twice during the regular season. The Falcons won 48-36 at home Oct. 5 and 49-41 at GCVI Oct. 28.
The championship game is set for Saturday at 8 p.m. at the University of Guelph’s Mitchell Athletics Centre.
Retrieved From: http://news.guelphmercury.com/Sports/article/719474
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