Article by: Mark BrysonWATERLOO — Bobbi-Sue Hentges was exhausted.
Ditto for Elizabeth Scanlon, Maria Valencia, Heather Sandal, Maggie Daly and Monica D'Arcy.
The six St. David students had just wrapped up a three-day, 34-kilometre hiking trip along the Bruce Trail and were clearly running on fumes Wednesday afternoon as the Celtics fell 42-22 to the Resurrection Phoenix in District 8 senior girls basketball league play.
The girls, along with Celtics coach Sarah Collins, arrived at St. David just 10 minutes before the opening tip and headed straight for the showers before trickling into the gymnasium, one or two at a time, during the first quarter.
St. David started the game with just six players, including junior-aged fill-ins Willow Wittman and Abby Howard.
"We are exhausted; to just pull in, take a shower and then play the game is so hard. I can't even move my legs right now because I'm so tired," said Hentges.
"We hiked for 10 hours on Monday and Tuesday and another four (Wednesday). We didn't even think about basketball until we were on the bus and heading home."
None of this is to take anything away from the Phoenix, a quality team that has rolled to an 8-0 record and sits atop the District 8 standings, one game up on the second-place St. Mary's Eagles.
The Phoenix handled the Celtics 39-20 in their first meeting on Sept. 30 and would have likely posted another win on Wednesday.
Still, Phoenix standout Celia McGlynn admits she could tell the Celtics weren't firing on all cylinders and that, in turn, had a negative affect on her own team's performance.
"I don't think it was our best game collectively. We are a better team than we showed but we got the win and that's what's important," she said.
"It's not good for us to come into a game thinking we're going to win but I think we were guilty of doing that when we saw they only had six players before the game."
Sarah Schulz led the charge for the Phoenix with 22 points, Ellen McGowan and Riley Cormier posted six apiece, and McGlynn added five.
Resurrection led 26-13 at half and scored the next 16 points before Hentges finally snapped the run with a fourth-quarter layup.
The Phoenix are coming off a second-place finish at a tournament in Cambridge over the weekend, falling to Jacob Hespeler in the final. They also reached the final of a tournament hosted by Waterloo-Oxford but were forced to forfeit the final.
"The tournaments give us a taste of the teams we'll have to play at CWOSSA (Central Western Ontario) if we get there. We have the potential to get there I think, but we have to work on a few things and that will come with time," said McGlynn, who predicts Rez will take on St. Mary's in the District 8 final.
The Phoenix beat the Eagles 30-26 in their lone meeting this season with a rematch set for Wednesday at St. Mary's.
The Celtics are the only triple-A team competing in District 8 and will need to win a qualifying game to advance to CWOSSA.
The District 8 final is scheduled for Nov. 11.
St. David is tied for third with St. Benedict at 4-4, while Woodland is 1-7 and Rockway is 0-8.
