GUELPH — Being a first-place finisher in a
District 10 high school girls' basketball league didn't turn out to be
such a good thing for Monday night's championship games at the Mitchell
Athletics Centre.
Both first-place finishers fell to the
second-place finishers in the finals as the Ross Royals defeated the
Guelph CVI Green Gaels, 42-34, in the senior match and the Bishop
Macdonell Celtics downed the Lourdes Crusaders, 38-23, in the junior
final.
The second-place finishers might have gone
into the final with a little extra motivation as both have been named
runners-up after losing out on tiebreakers, as the first- and
second-place finishers in both leagues had identical records. They were
10-2 for the seniors and 13-1 for the juniors.
In both championship matches, the eventual
winners grabbed the lead in the first half and didn't relinquish it.
In the senior final, the Royals and Gaels
were close (13-12 for Ross) at the end of the first quarter before Ross
pulled away. The Royals were up 27-15 at the half and 40-26 after the
third quarter before GCVI clawed back into the game in a final quarter
that saw Ross sink two free throws.
"We just played our game like we know we
can," Ross captain Maddy Darling said. "That was our goal. Our goal was
D10 and then we made it and we won it."
"We came out doing exactly what we wanted to
do," Ross coach Chris Muller said. "We had a game plan and we stuck to
it. That helped out. We were up by quite a bit and we let them come back
a little bit but, for the most part, it was exactly what we wanted to
do."
Darling led the Royals with 20 points, while Catie Terrey had seven and Anna Vuckovic netted six.
"She was phenomenal off the start. She was
hitting her threes and taking shots I've never seen," Muller said of
Darling. "She looked confident in her shot, which, if that's going
right, she's unstoppable."
Darling was so on her game, the right-handed shooter sank a left-handed three-pointer.
"I don't really know how I did that, to be
honest," she said. "I never really ever do that, but my dad calls me
ambidextrous so I guess I am. I wasn't thinking about it at the time."
Darling felt there was no indication before the game that she was about to have a big night.
"I was actually missing my shots in warm-up,
so I really didn't know," she said. "I guess, when you're on during a
game, that's all that really matters."
Sydney Wilson connected for 14 points for
GCVI, while Emina Bektic had 10 and Jenna Falconer added six.
"We worked hard, but our youth showed," GCVI
coach Matt Blair said. "We worked as hard as we could, I have no
disappointment in the girls' effort. They left everything on the floor."
In the junior final, Bishop Mac took the air
out of the Crusaders' sails in the opening quarter as the Celtics led
14-3 at the end of the first quarter. They were up 25-13 at halftime and
32-18 after the third quarter.
"Our girls came out hard right out of the
gate," Bishop Mac coach Bree Chaput said. "It's tough to play catch up
the whole game, so it was great we started that way. Our girls wanted it
all season and you could tell the way they came out that they wanted
this game.
The fast start was the result of the focus
the Celtics had placed on doing just that throughout the season.
"We always talk about getting a good start
and setting the pace and playing our game and not their game," Chaput
said. "We've been working on it all season and I think it just clicked
tonight."
Grace Drewry hit for 11 points for Bishop
Mac while Sara Milla had eight and Rachel Guanzon gathered seven.
Jada Codrington had nine points to lead Lourdes while Jessica Mathieu had eight.
Both senior teams advance to the CWOSSA AAA
championship tournament Friday and Saturday at Waterloo CI while the
Bishop Mac juniors go on to the CWOSSA AA junior tournament at
Brantford's Pauline Johnson Collegiate, also Friday and Saturday.
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