There can only be one.Both the Grand River Renegades and KCI Raiders enter tonight's junior final (6:30pm, Preston HS) with unblemished 14-0 WCSSAA records --- a perfect 12-0 season plus wins in the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds.
Yet, that's about where the similarities end as they both have unique on-court talents and strategies. Let's start by looking at the personnel:
Grand River - Starting Lineup Breakdown
For the Renegades, they have two of the most athletic guards in CWOSSA basketball with shifty PG Maya Day and ultra-quick SG Nancy Michael. As such, the Rens love to get out in transition, as we saw early and often on Saturday against SJAM in the semifinal.
Forward Nyasha Mombeshora can fill the lanes in transition, and is a double-double threat every time she steps on to the floor.
Of course, you can't pay too much attention to cutting off the Grand River driving lanes inside as Tijana Abadzic provides a solid outside shooting threat. Megan Schnittke won't take as many shot attempts as the other starters, but she has a solid nose for the ball on rebounds (6 in the semifinal).
KCI - Starting Lineup Breakdown
The KCI Raiders probably aren't as athletic (overall) as the Renegades, but they have a ton of size across the starting lineup that can certainly give teams some issues. The Raiders nearly doubled up Jacob Hespeler on Saturday in terms of rebounding, and were able to finish some key second-chance opportunities as a result.
Like Grand River, the Raiders also have three main scoring threats in Michaela Schlumberger, Liv Mickie, and Thea Taylor. That said, those three usually score in no particular order, as witnessed by their regular season output --- Mickie & Taylor were among KCI's top two scorers 7 times, while Schlumberger was in the top two 6 times.
Erin Markle and Simone Clarke round out the KCI starting five, and both made some significant contributions on Saturday both in the scoring column and on the backboards. The Raiders will need more of the same from them this evening.
Game Thoughts & Pick
Many of the key players for each team have been here before --- just last year as the #3 Raiders upset the #1 Renegades in the championship final, 42-41 in overtime.
This year, the Renegades enter again as the favourites, but probably not by a double-digit margin like last year (not that it mattered to KCI). Grand River has just one loss on the season (in a tournament game against Resurrection where Mombeshora was injured), and swept away some impressive GTA competition at the Hoopdome Tournament.
It will certainly be an intriguing championship final and I think that "pace of play" will certainly have an impact on determining the championship --- if it's an "up and down" type game, that favours Grand River, while KCI is very solid in executing their half-court sets should the pace be slowed.
I think Grand River gets a bit of payback tonight for last year's loss, but it should be close. Grand River by 7.
