Article By: Vincent BallThere were some terrific individual performances but it was team defence and a balanced scoring attack that carried the day in the opening game Tuesday of the Brant County junior high school girls basketball championship series.
Brantford Collegiate Institute Colts used aggressive defence and got some timely scoring by a couple of key players to beat the St. John's College Green Eagles 60-56 in a highly entertaining game.
"I think everyone played well and we played aggressively," said Kennedy Peirce, who scored 19 points for BCI.
"We played well as a team but I think we could have done a better job of rebounding. I think we need to come back even stronger in our next game.
Peirce had a terrific opening half. He scored three three-pointers, including a couple that were back-to-back in the second quarter. But the Mustangs got points from other players, including Neyla Piovesan, who scored a three-point buzzer-beater at the end of the first quarter.
Piovesan finished with nine points, Taylor Hill scored 10, while Maddie Sanderson and Lacey Madia each scored seven.
The Green Eagles got an outstanding performance from Kaityln Overeem, who battled hard underneath the hoop all game. She drew numerous fouls and scored 12 of her 14 points from the foul line.
Emily Dignan, meanwhile, also had an outstanding game for the Green Eagles scoring 29 points.
But the Green Eagles will have to do better if they want to even the series on Thursday, coach Alexa Santilli said following the game.
"We've always had a tough battle with BCI and we have to do a better job of working as a team," Santilli said. "Boxing out and doing a better job on the boards will be huge for us in the next game.
"There were a lot of positives for us but we have to make sure everyone comes to play."
Game 2 of the final is Thursday 5:30 p.m. at Pauline Johnson Collegiate.
In the opening game of the senior girls' final, St. John's defeated the BCI Mustangs 84 to 20.
The Green Eagles were led in scoring by Megan Thompson with 17 points and Kendra Van Leeuwen and Alaina McMillan, with 15 each.
BCI got points from Madison McBride, Kiana Madia and Summer Sakaluk.
St. John's used tough defence all over the court to force a lot of turnovers which often led to baskets. But when the game was clearly out of reach, the Green Eagles stopped with the full court press.
Game 2 of the senior girls' final goes Thursday at 7 p.m. at PJ.
Retrieved From: http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/2014/11/04/high-school-girls-basketball-playoffs-bci-prevails-in-junior-championship-opener
