Article By: Darryl G. SmartTo win their seventh-consecutive Brant County senior girls basketball title, the St. John's Green Eagles knew they would need a great team effort and maybe something special.
On Monday night in Game 3 of the final, they got that effort, as well as a 24-point performance from their Grade 9 point guard Kendra VanLeeuwen en route to a 58-50 win over the Assumption College Lions.
"It feels good because they're such great competitors (ACS) and we've battled with them all year," VanLeeuwen said.
"It feels amazing," she said.
"Especially to do it with this team. We've bonded from the beginning of the year to the end."
She and teammate Lauren Dubois said the win feels that much more special because of the way they had to do it.
"It feels great to know that we finally topped them, and knowing we had to come back again," Dubois said.
"This kid (VanLeeuwen) had a great game for us. She's been our best player and maybe even the best in the city. She came out and had an amazing game tonight to lead us."
While Dubois gave a lot of credit to VanLeeuwen, the young star said the victory couldn't have been possible without the support of her teammates.
After the Lions jumped out to a 15-14 first-quarter lead, the Green Eagles had scoring from six different players in the second quarter to build a 33-24 halftime lead. At one point in the third quarter, they led by as much as 14.
But the Lions weren't lying down.
After Jerika and Rikayla Baldin both hit long-range three-pointers less than a minute a part, the Lions pecked away and finally took back the lead with five minutes to go in the game, before the Green Eagles quickly responded and didn't look back.
"I just think we were trying to calm it down (the last couple of minutes)," Dubois said. "They came at us with a really hard full court press. It was difficult to break at first, but we just needed to relax and know it was our game. We had to just control our pace and the tempo"
Though VanLeeuwen led the way, Dubois, who was hampered with a wrist injury, was also key in the win, hitting a big three-pointer to give her team some insurance during the Lions' fourth-quarter surge.
"Honestly, it's not thinking about the shot. It's going through the same motions," Dubois said.
"It's something you do over and over again. Tonight I was open and I made the shot. Yesterday, I was missing a lot because of my wrist but to I knew I could do it for the team today.
"It was difficult but I knew I had to battle through it," she said. "If I showed any weakness, they would take advantage of it. I had to show I was ready and fit at the start of the game."
Now, the Green Eagles move on to the Central Western Ontario Secondary Schools Association AAAA championships at Centennial Collegiate Vocational Institute in Guelph beginning Friday.
Retrieved From: http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/2012/11/12/senior-eagles-win-7th-straight-title
