CAMBRIDGE — KCI Raiders head coach Andrea Mickie clutched the championship plaque and showered her players with praise.
“I can’t believe this is ours. This is incredible,” she said to her smiling charges. “You are all such class acts.”
Mickie and the Raiders were clearly pleasantly surprised on Wednesday night at Preston High School, just moments after downing the Grand River Renegades in a 42-41 overtime thriller to claim the Waterloo County junior girls basketball title. The third-ranked Raiders were given little chance of knocking off the top-ranked Renegades, but that’s exactly what went down in the first half of the junior-senior championship doubleheader.
There was no such surprise in the WCSSAA senior final as the top-ranked Waterloo Collegiate Vikings downed the Jacob Hespeler Hawks 48-34 to win their 13th title in the past 15 years. WCI was appearing in its 10th straight final while Jacob Hespeler was making its title game debut.
In the junior final, Frances Campbell scored 14 points to lead the Raiders, while Alia Hazineh added 11. Maya Day had 12 and Nyamuoch Teny had 10 for the Raiders.
Caroline Lorkovic attempted a three-point shot at the buzzer that would have won it for the Renegades, but it rattled off the rim and the Raiders celebrated their victory.
“It feels great. No one expected us to win because Grand River had been doing so well all season and it was just a great experience to be so close to them all game and come out on top,” said Campbell.
The Raiders’ secret to success, she added, was fairly simple.
“Teamwork, everyone put in a great effort and no one person was better than the other . . . everyone was great, good passes, great offence, it really was a team effort.”
Grand River had crushed every challenger during the regular season and playoffs, piling up a 13-0 record and winning by an average of more than 20 points per game. The Renegades had beaten the Raiders 47-26 in an earlier meeting, so Wednesday’s result was clearly a shocker. KCI had lost two games during the regular season, but was coming off impressive playoff wins over Bluevale and WCI.
The Renegades led 15-12 at the half but the Raiders took a 23-22 lead into the final quarter and expanded that lead thanks to strong outside shooting by Campbell, who hit back-to-back three pointers to make it 34-24. The Renegades dug deep and scored the final eight points of regulation to tie 36-36 going into the extra session.
In the senior final, Julia Pavlik led WCI’s balanced attack with 13 points, while Lindsay Taylor added 12 and Alex Klein had 11. Courtney Wright was outstanding for Jacob Hespeler, scoring a game-high 21 points.
Both senior teams advance to Central Western Ontario championship tournaments that will be played Friday and Saturday. WCI will play in the quad-A tournament in Guelph along with Bluevale, Waterloo-Oxford, Resurrection, Brantford St. John’s and Guelph J.F. Ross. Jacob Hespeler will play in the triple-A tournament in Brantford with Southwood, Guelph St. James, Brantford North Park, Brantford Collegiate and Simcoe Holy Trinity.
The junior CWOSSA quad-A tournament will be played in Fergus and features Grand River, WCI, J.F Ross, St. John’s, Guelph Centennial and Resurrection.
KCI, Jacob Hespeler, St. David, Elmira, Guelph Collegiate and the host North Park Trojans will compete for the CWOSSA triple-A title in Brantford.
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