Basketballs
The P.E.I. School Athletic Association senior A basketball championships were on the line at Holland College in Charlottetown on Friday night.
The Charlottetown Rural Team Two Raiders are the 2017 P.E.I. School Athletic Association senior A girls’ basketball champions.
The Raiders prevailed over the Kensington Torchettes 47-37 in the gold-medal game. However, the contest was a lot closer than the final score would indicate.
The result of the boys’ final between Morell and Francois Buote was unavailable at deadline time. The Three Oaks Team Two teams swept the bronze medals. The Axewomen got by the Kinkora Blazers 39-33, and the Axemen edged the Colonel Gray Team Two Colonels 74-71 in double overtime. All of the medal games were played at Holland College on Friday.
Raiders 47 Torchettes 37
Kensington led 9-7 after one quarter, and 21-18 at halftime as both teams played tough defence and forced turnovers – 17 by Rural and 19 by Kensington. Casey Currie’s basket with 58 seconds remaining in the third quarter gave the Raiders their first lead – 29-28. Rural led 31-28 after three quarters, and never looked back.
Kami Chaisson, Laura Burge and Grace McGuirk all scored eight points for Rural. The Raiders’ Molly Birthwhistle, who was named the most valuable player (MVP) of the provincial championship tournament,
contributed six points and 15 rebounds. Chloe Champion poured in a game-high 17 points for Kensington, Emily MacDonald had six points and seven boards, and Annie Tuplin contributed 13 rebounds.
Axewomen 39 Blazers 33
The Axewomen, led by Melanie Rodger (8), Jordyn Connell (7) and Caileigh Shea (6), held quarter leads of 10-3, 17-15 and 31-17. Alexis Mulligan (15), Elizabeth Phillips (7) and Rachel Green (6) were Kinkora’s top point-getters.
Axemen 74 Colonels 71
Noah Wamboldt’s first basket of the game with 36 seconds remaining in the second overtime period broke a 71-71 tie, and Matt Enman hit a foul shot to close out the scoring as the Axemen prevailed.
Enman finished with a 32point effort while Camren Gavin contributed 15 and Marcus Gauthier had 11. Gauthier also contributed 24 rebounds, including 11 at the offensive end.