GUELPH -- Once the Centre Wellington Falcons settled down and got rid of the jitters they experienced in their very first District 10 high school senior girls’ basketball final, there was little the Guelph CVI Green Gaels could do.
Using stifling defence that restricted GCVI’s attack, the Falcons soared to a 52-18 triumph in the final Saturday night at the University of Guelph’s Mitchell Athletics Centre.
“I wasn’t expecting for that sort of margin in difference in the score,” Centre Wellington coach Keith Cressman said. “We struggled a bit against GC the last time we played them and I was expecting this to be another close game.”
"I thought it was going to be a lot closer,” Centre Wellington’s Erica McFadden said. She led all scorers with 21 points and has taken over as the leader of the Falcons after Jaime Janssen was sidelined for the season with a concussion last month. “We were down by six right away so I was scared that we weren’t going to come back.”
Centre Wellington won both regular-season meetings with GCVI as the Falcons prevailed 48-36 at home Oct. 5 and 49-41 at GC Oct. 28.
All of the excitement on championship night was in the junior final as the Lourdes Crusaders edged the St. James Lions 45-43 in the first game of the championship doubleheader. It was the first loss in D10 play for the Lions this season.
Thanks to two early three-pointers by Alysha Warnholtz, the Gaels led 8-7 at the end of the first quarter of the senior final. The Falcons shot ahead in the opening minute of the second quarter and never trailed the rest of the way. Centre Wellington was up 19-10 at the half and 37-16 after three quarters.
“We all started to come together and our nerves were out,” McFadden said. “We started playing together as a team and making our shots, which was nice.
“I was (a little nervous) at the beginning, but once I started playing I just forgot about everything and tried to play my best for my team.”
“Our defence, we picked up the intensity a bit in the second quarter and really from that point on in the game, our defence really was the story,” Cressman said. “That team has some very good shooters, but after the first quarter, we didn’t give them any open looks. It’s a lot tougher to hit a shot with a hand in your face than if you have a wide-open look. That’s what our defence did tonight.”
Both teams had arrived at the final following one-point victories in Thursday’s semifinals. The second-place Falcons had edged the third-place Ross Royals 45-44 at Fergus while the fourth-place Gaels had upset the first-place Bishop Macdonell Celtics 35-34 at Bishop Mac.
Brenann Francis had 12 points for Centre Wellington in the final while Meghan Fennell and Chelsea Riepert added six each. Hailey Salvian, Jenn Beer and Nicole Rogers had two each and Christina Blackwell had one.
Warnholtz topped GCVI’s scoring list with her early six while Sierra McLaren and Lindsay Thompson, hobbled with a sore right ankle after hurting it early in the first quarter, had three apiece. Amanda Cuncins, Sarah Mayes and Gaby Staunton had two each.
The junior final was an epic battle as neither team was able to dominate for any significant amount of time. Lourdes led 12-9 at the end of the first quarter and 20-19 at the half, but it was tied 27-27 at the end of the third quarter.
The game pitted the top two teams in the league against one another. St. James had finished atop the standings at 14-0 while Lourdes was second at 12-2 after losing both regular-season games with the Lions.
The Crusaders won the final with Madison Vettoretto’s free-throw shooting during the final minute as the Lions had to foul in order to get a chance at getting the ball back. She sank seven of nine to keep Lourdes ahead.
“A lot,” Lourdes coach Coleen Driscoll answered when asked how much her team works on their foul shots. “Every practice and we talk about it all the time.”
While Lourdes had been whistled for the first nine fouls of the game, the Lions took 20 of the 26 called after that.
The Crusaders grabbed a six-point lead with 1:30 to go, but knew they couldn’t count the Lions out thanks to their proficiency at sinking three-pointers. St. James sank six trebles in the game, two in the final 82 seconds by Chelsey Gazzola.
“We got out on their three-point shooters,” Driscoll said. “They’re a strong three-point-shooting team. They’re aggressive. We were just making sure we got to the boards first. We boarded hard, be patient, look for offensive opportunities and we made sure we protected that three-point line.”
Monica Trimble led Lourdes with 15 points while Vettoretto had 14, Victoria Brombal six, Cecilia Hudecki five, Charlotte Case four and Valentine Kitoko one.
Chelsey Gazzola collected a game-high 23 points for St. James while Brittany Gazzola had 11, Keely McVicar four, Cristina Berardine three and Ashley Benham two.
All four championship combatants advance in the CWOSSA playoffs, although the Lions must play a AAA qualifier against the District 4 champion Westside Thunder at Orangeville Tuesday.
The CWOSSA AA tournament is Wednesday at Lourdes while the two-day AAA and AAAA tournaments will be held Friday and Saturday at Cambridge and Brantford respectively.
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