Brantford Expositor: Senior, Junior Finals Matchups Are Set

Article By:  Hugo Rodrigues

It'll be two one-two final series to determine this year's Brant County senior and junior girls basketball champions after the top two seeds in regular-season play for each division won their semifinals Thursday evening.

In the senior matchup, top-seed St. John's College Eagles almost doubled the Assumption College Lions 53-28 in the first semifinal of the evening, with the No. 2-seeded Brantford Collegiate Mustangs winning the other semifinal 46-32 over North Park Collegiate. In the junior games, top-seed St. John's beat North Park 43-19, with No. 2 seed Assumption winning its semifinal against Brantford Collegiate 41-20.

“It was exciting in the room after the game,” senior Eagles player Megan Thompson said. “This has been one of our biggest goals, to make the city finals and more.”

The teams face off in best-of-three series scheduled for Nov. 5, 7 and, if needed, Nov. 11 at Paris District High School.

“Whether it's BCI or North Park, it's going to be a great final series,” senior Eagles coach Matt Lynch said.

“We recognize we get every team's best effort. We'll give every team our best effort too.”

In the Assumption -St. John's senior semifinal, both teams started the game taking a few minutes to get a feel for each other's play. It took over two minutes for the ball to find the basket for the first time, with the Eagles sinking it and establishing the lead the team would hold for the rest of the game.

The score at the end of the first quarter was 7-2 for the Eagles, who would widen it to 23-6 by the half and have firm control of the game by then. Play was stopped for almost 15 minutes in the second quarter after an injury to a Lions player, which was a tough moment for Assumption College to play past.

“It's tough to see that happen to a teammate,” Assumption captain Rikayla Baldin said of the injury. “I thought we were starting to get on a roll at the time too, so it broke out momentum.”

Making the semifinals was a good end for Assumption, which Baldin noted is rebuilding. At this point, only three players are moving on before next season. The Eagles-Lions game was physical at points, which Baldin said is a sign of a the healthy rivalry between the two schools.

“It's a good intense game whenever we play St. John's,” she said.

Lynch credited the Eagles strong defensive play in being able to hold the Eagles' score as low as it was throughout the game. It was something the team was able to re-establish a few times in the second half as the Lions would get some momentum in shutting down the Eagles' offence and start pressing the zone.

“We never want to look past anyone,” Lynch said. “We were prepared to come in and beat Assumption and next week we'll be prepared to beat whomever we're facing.”
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At a glance

Senior Semifinals
St. John's College 53, Assumption College 28
SJC — Brianna Bavota 13 pts, Megan Thompson 13 pts, Kendra Van Leeuwen 9 pts
ACS — Rikayla Baldin 7 pts, Chelsey Murray 5 pts, Nicole Shea 5 pts

Brantford Collegiate 46, North Park 32
BCI — Lexi Lancaster 14 pts, Summer Sakaluk 13 pts, Bayley Vachon 13 pts
NPC — Abby Sayles 16 pts, Abbey Johnston 8 pts

Junior Semifinals
St. John's College 43, North Park Collegiate 19

Assumption College 41, Brantford CI 20

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