Guelph Mercury: Hoops Celtics Finish Regular Season Undefeated

Article By:  Rob Massey

GUELPH – The Bishop Macdonell Celtics wrapped up an undefeated District 10 high schools senior girls’ basketball league undefeated regular season by rallying in the fourth quarter for a 44-37 victory over the Lourdes Crusaders Thursday.

“We got upset last year and the year before that, so I feel like we all just wanted to finish undefeated,” Bishop Mac forward Andrea Priamo said. “That was the most important thing, I guess, but it just feels good to finish in first.”

“I don’t necessarily think it was that important for us to finish unbeaten,” Bishop Mac coach Karen Bremner said. “It’s a nice little thing to add to our hat, but for us to be able to play in a close game like that was a very good gut check for us. We had not played in very many close games like that and the ones we have (at tournaments), we’ve lost. It was nice for us to have some success in a close one.”

The Celtics were ousted in the semifinals each of the last two years. They had finished 12-2 last year and 13-1 in 2010.

Thursday, Lourdes led 9-3 at the end of the first quarter, 20-16 at halftime and 31-29 after the third quarter.

“We have had some tough games against Lourdes,” Priamo said. “They’re a really good, competitive team.”

For the Celtics, their 44-point performance was the lowest in league play this season.

“I don’t think it had so much to do with what we didn’t do as what Lourdes did do,” Bremner said. “They’re a solid basketball team.

They’re very, very athletic and it’s not surprising that it is competitive between the two of us.”

Andrea Priamo led Bishop Mac with 14 points while Sandra Clark had 11. Rebecca Morris added five with Mackenzie Bernhardt and Jess Morris getting four apiece and Sabrina Cazzola, Anna de Lange and Kaitlyn Phillips two each.

Madison Vettoretto and Monica Trimble each had seven points for Lourdes while Hannah Pearsall netted six, Cecilia Hudecki five and Charlotte Case, Erika Beaver and Victoria Brombal four each.

The game was meaningless as far as the standings were concerned as the teams had already clinched the top two positions, Bishop Mac in first and Lourdes second. The Celtics finish at 14-0 while the Crusaders end at 11-3.

The playoffs start with the quarter-finals Tuesday. The semifinals are set for Thursday and the final for next Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Mitchell Athletics Centre.

“We play best as a team, when we’re not trying to do it all ourselves,” Priamo said. “We’ve been getting better and better at that and that’s our main goal.”

Bremner said the Celtics are going to take next week’s playoffs one day at a time.

“It’s like little mini seasons and that’s how we’re going to treat it,” she said. “(We’ll be) making sure that we’re healthy. We’ve got a couple people who are banged up and have some injuries, so we’ll be making sure we have that under control and just have a solid week at practice.”

Centre Wellington 36 Centennial 35
Hailey Salvian led Centre Wellington with 10 points while Kristen Gora followed with nine. Hannah Ferguson had a game-high 14 for Centennial while Kendra Achonwa collected nine.

St. James 73 Ross 53
Chelsey Gazzola hit for 22 points for St. James while Nastassja Herriot chipped in with 18 and Ashley Benham had 13. Teddi Taran struck for 17 for Ross and was followed by Sydney Resch with 11 and Alanna Vosper with eight.

Orangeville 50 Guelph CVI 42
Claire Fenton collected a game high 27 points for Orangeville while Rachel Adams added 10. The Strongmans, Katie and Cally, each had 14 for GCVI.

D10 Jr. Girls Basketball

Centennial 41 Centre Wellington 15
Emma Cain connected for 11 points for Centennial while Emma Korol had 10 and Sarah Mason and Halle Milne had six apiece. Kayla Teeter led Centre Wellington with seven while Rachel O’Brien and Gabby Teri each had three.

St. James 41 Ross 37
Natassja Herriot sparked St. James with 11 points while Meghan Santi had nine and Kelsey Widdrington five. Ross received 13 points from Maddie Darling and six apiece from Emily-Kate Gray and Candice Geisel.

Guelph CVI 47 Orangeville 19
Sydney Wilson hit for 12 points for GCVI while eight went to Ijeoma Staunton, seven to Erica Stone and six to Roshni Patel. Maggie Scaife had six for Orangeville while Jasmin Krofchick added four.

Bishop Macdonell 30 Lourdes 15
Hannah Kendall gathered eight points for Bishop Mac while Mikayla Tassone, Rachael DiGravio and Danielle Driscoll each had four. Elizabeth Endicott connected for 10 for Lourdes while Elise Roche had four.

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