The Cameron Heights Golden Gaels picked a great time for their offense to get untracked.Trailing 30-23 entering the final quarter of play, the Gaels nearly equalled their output from the first 24 minutes in the final frame, outscoring Bluevale 19-11 and coming away with a nailbiting 42-41 victory.
In doing so, the Gaels earned themselves a CWOSSA "AAAA" playoff berth and a home game on Saturday in the WCSSAA semifinals. They'll take on Jacob Hespeler in the nightcap (more on that later).
Nina Farkic (10) and Shama Saleh (7) led the Gael scoring on Tuesday, while Sarah Hamm had 13 in her final Bluevale appearance with Julia Curran adding 11.
The other three games all went to the better-seeded teams.
#4 WCI easily handled #5 KCI in what many thought might be the most interesting of the quarterfinal games. The Vikings jumped out to a 22-3 lead after one quarter and didn't look back en route to the 53-35 win.
A balanced WCI attack was keyed by Kaylee Anagnostopoulos (13), Isabella Kellerman (13) and Danielle Sauve (11). Frances Campbell (8) and Olivia Nelles (7) led the way for the Raiders.
#3 Jacob Hespeler had some issues with #6 Grand River (3 point lead at halftime; single digit lead in 4th quarter) but survived and advanced to the tune of 41-31.
The Rens did a much better job containing Jasmine Ramcharan (10 points), but the Hawks got 25 combined from Candice (15) and Courtney (10) Wright. Hannah Gibson and Nyamuoch Teny had 6 each for the Rens.
Top-seeded Waterloo-Oxford cruised to a 48-17 win over #8 Southwood. Maddy Horst netted 16 and Tess Pettigrew 9 in the win for WO, while Taylor White (9) and Megan Cole (5) were the top Sabre scorers.
Southwood, a "AA" school, will advance to a play-in game for a CWOSSA berth.
Speaking of CWOSSA, the four remaining teams (WCI & CHCI - AAAA; JHSS & WODSS - AAA) have qualified for their respective CWOSSA tournaments.
And here's the schedule for Saturday at Cameron Heights:
(1) WODSS vs. (4) WCI - 7:00pm
(3) Jacob Hespeler vs. (7) Cameron Hts. - 5:30pm**
**Change made from original WCSSAA schedule to accomodate JHSS playing back-to-back junior & senior semifinals.
