The Knights (#5 in last week's CWOSSABasketball.com senior rankings) took out the #4 Jacob Hespeler Hawks by a 51-42 final in the tournament championship of the JHSS Invitational on Saturday evening. The game was certainly a lot closer than the final score would indicate.
It was a frenetic pace early on, with both teams not afraid to push the tempo. The first quarter would end with the Hawks up 15-12, although star forward Brooklyn Wright had 2 fouls to go along with the 8 points that she counted in the first frame.
Things slowed down a bit in the second quarter, and Bluevale trimmed the gap to 25-24 at half. It seemed as though the Knights were gaining in confidence, and it really shone through in the third quarter.
BCI would go on a 17-9 run over the 8-minute third quarter, which has certainly been Hespeler's nemesis to this point in the season (re: 22-6 3Q score for CHCI in their league game). This allowed Bluevale to take a 7-point lead (41-34) heading into the final frame.
To JHSS' credit, they refused to go away. Bluevale pushed the lead to 9, but the Hawks got a few baskets inside, including an "and-one" by Candice Wright late that cut things down to 45-42 with under two minutes to go.
Unfortunately for Hawk fans in attendance, JHSS had to resort to fouling and the ball ended up almost every time in the hands of one of BCI's best free-throw shooters, Sarah Hamm, who went 6-for-6 down the stretch to account for the final 51-42 margin of victory.
Speaking of free throw shooting, it was certainly a factor in the outcome on Saturday evening as the Knights torched an 85% clip (17-for-20) from the stripe while Jacob Hespeler was just 38.8% (7-for-18).
Hamm led Bluevale with 21 points, while Natalie Bishop added 9. Brooklyn Wright led the Hawks with 15 points and 9 rebounds.
**Boxscore To Follow**
Jacob Hespeler and Bluevale both won handily in their semifinal games against St. Mary's (Kitchener) and Grand River respectively. St. Mary's took the third place game between those squads 49-38, with everyone on both rosters seeing extensive action.
