Article By: Mark Bryson
KITCHENER — The Waterloo-Oxford Crusaders
are just three games into their season and have already improved on last
year's totals.
Emily Glendinning and MacKeely Shantz posted
18-point performances Thursday as the Baden girls rolled to a 46-19 win
over the Cameron Heights Golden Gaels in Waterloo County senior high
school basketball play. The Crusaders, who could only manage two
victories last year, improved to 3-0 on the campaign and appear to be
one of several teams in the championship hunt.
A pair of Grade 10 additions — Madison
Sadler and Shantz — have made an immediate impact on the Crusaders'
senior roster. Sadler missed Thursday's game because of dental surgery,
while Shantz came off the bench and had a dominant performance.
"MacKeely adds a lot. She's one of our top
players and she adds scoring, she adds defence, and she's just an
overall great player. And Madi, she's a really good shooter that jacks
up threes when we need her to," said Glendinning.
"We all just get along and we play well
together as a team. It's totally different from last year, we're much
stronger and we're having a lot more fun."
Waterloo-Oxford scored 28 consecutive points
against Cameron Heights and was never seriously threatened. The Gaels
led 6-4 at the midway point of the first quarter but didn't post another
point until the third quarter when a basket by Mariah Zervos cut the
Crusaders' lead to 32-8.
Olivia Lennon led Cameron Heights with eight points and Laura Weber added six.
The Sir John A. Macdonald Highlanders would
have been favoured to three-peat as WCSSAA champions — they defeated
Cameron Heights in last year's final — but hugely talented Kate Moran
opted to continue her education and basketball career at The Rise Centre
academy in Brantford.
Moran's absence, according to Glendinning,
moved the Crusaders and several other teams into the title hunt.
"Kate was almost too good for the league, I
think. She could shoot, she could drive, she could post up, she could
play defence, and she's just a great player overall," she said.
"You need to have height to play against her
and if you don't have height, she's unstoppable. I think it makes the
league fairer because they can't just lob the ball to her."
Two years ago, Glendinning was on the
Waterloo-Oxford senior squad that fell to SJAM in the final. Moran, in
Grade 9 at the time, led her team with 24 points.
SJAM remains one of the teams to beat,
although the Highlanders suffered a surprising one-point loss to the
Waterloo Vikings on Tuesday.
The Gaels' hopes of reaching another WCSSAA
final were lessened earlier this month when Nina Farkic, the league's
MVP last season, decided to sit the year out.
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