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| Team Photo - Sean Allen / Brant News |
The Brantford Collegiate Institute Mustangs
junior girls basketball team knew their rivals from the North Park
Collegiate Trojans would come out hard and with confidence in the team’s
fifth – and most important – match of the season.
The Mustangs plan was to come out harder.
“We knew they would come out hard,” Grade 10
player Maddie Sanderson said. “We had to be ready for that and we
were."
Playing for the regional CWOSSA (Central
Western Ontario Secondary School Association) crown at Waterloo
Collegiate Institute on Saturday night, the Mustangs staked themselves a
10-0 lead before the Trojans scored a point.
The Trojans got within seven early in the second quarter, but would never get closer.
The Mustangs claimed the school’s first
CWOSSA girls basketball title with a 40-25 victory in the championship
of the two-day, eight-team tournament hosted in Waterloo.
“It feels great, we worked so hard all
season,” Sanderson said. “It’s surprising it is the first (CWOSSA) title
for the school, considering all the players we’ve had. Winning the
first one feels pretty great."
BCI opened the final on a mission.
Sanderson stole the ball from the Trojans and dropped in a layup for the games first points.
BCI’s Paige Bagshaw hauled in a defensive
rebound on the next possession to set up a three-pointer from teammate
Taylor Hill. Mustangs point guard Kennedy Chisholm stole the ball on the
Trojans next possession to set up Bagshaw for a layup.
Hill then drained her second three-pointer for a 10-0 score before the Trojans knew what hit them.
The Trojans would battle back to a 17-8 deficit at the end of the first quarter.
Things were looking up briefly in the second
quarter when North Park’s Amber Leggett blocked a Mustangs layup, stole
the ball and set up teammate Noelle Adams for a layup. That made the
score 17-10 for the Mustangs, but the Trojans wouldn’t get any closer.
Hill closed the first half with five
consecutive points on a jump shot and by hitting three-of-four shots
from the foul line to make it 24-11 at halftime.
The Trojans showed renewed energy to start
the third quarter when Simran Grewal found an open Leggett to drive to
the basket to open the scoring in the second half. But that momentum was
quashed on the next possession when Bagshaw dove out of bounds to save
an offensive rebound and the Mustangs fed the ball to Chisholm for a
three-pointer.
The Mustangs got points from five different
players in an 11-7 third quarter to push the lead to 35-18.
The Trojans outscored the Mustangs 7-5 in
the final frame, but it was a low-scoring quarter as the Mustangs worked
time of the clock with quick passing in the offensive zone.
The team started celebrating with possession
of the ball as the final four seconds ticked off the clock on their
40-25 lead.
North Park couldn’t punish the Mustangs at
the line in the second half, shooting only five-of-13 on foul shots.
Hill led the way for BCI with 16 points,
including two three-pointers and a four-of-five from the foul line.
Chisholm had eight points, two steals and an assist.
“They worked hard as a team,” coach Ross
Enslev said. “There was no go-to person throughout the season – this was
a total team effort."
Hill, Bagshaw, Sanderson and Chisholm all
had double-digit scoring games during the tournament, with Hill,
Sanderson and Chisholm taking turns leading the way for scoring.
Enslev, Ron Jamula and Pat Woodburn coached the CWOSSA winning squad.
Noelle Adams led the Trojans with seven points in the final, while Leggett had six.
The Trojans’ Bria Yurczyszyn was held to two
points by the Mustangs defence after she scored 37 points in the
previous three games at CWOSSA.
The two Brantford teams in the tournament
were on a collision course for the final after a nail-biter for the
Brant championship just nine days earlier.
The Trojans had held a lead over the
Mustangs entering the fourth quarter of Game 2 in the Brant final on
Nov. 12, which the Mustangs erased with 22 points in the final frame to
claim the local title.
Both teams were granted entry to the AAA CWOSSA tournament.
While the Mustangs marched to final
undefeated with double-digit victories in all three games, the Trojans
clawed their way to the championship and, ultimately, the silver medals.
After losing to the Waterloo-Oxford
Crusaders to open the tournament, the Trojans advanced to the semifinals
with a 43-41 overtime victory against the Resurrection Phoenix from
Kitchener on Friday.
The Trojans then edged the Kitchener
Collegiate Institute Raiders by a score of 46-42 on Saturday in the
semifinal.
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