Down to the wire
SIS, Stonepark girls’ final goes down to final buzzer
SIS, Stonepark girls’ final goes down to final buzzer.
It was everything a championship game should be.
The Summerside Intermediate School (SIS) Owls and Stonepark Tigers battled down to the final seconds to determine the girls’ gold-medal-winning team in the P.E.I. School Athletic Association intermediate AA basketball championships Tuesday night. The teams fought back and forth throughout the game that had a noisy and appreciative crowd at the SIS gymnasium on the edge of their seats. When the final buzzer sounded, the Owls celebrated a nail-biting 41-39 victory.
“That game was the pinnacle of the season for both of these teams,” said Owls head coach Sean MacDonald.
“You have to take you hat off to Stonepark. They went undefeated this season, they are a terrific and well-coached basketball team.
“(Tuesday), we had to play a strategy to keep the ball to the outside, try to prevent penetration in the key and for us we had to win it on the boards.”
Jill Power scored the championship-clinching basket in the final minute as she grabbed a defensive rebound after a couple of Stonepark misses, brought the ball up the floor, drove to the basket off the left wing against two Stonepark defenders and calmly laid the ball in off the glass with 41 seconds remaining.
Power finished with 11 points and Paige MacLean led the Owls with 16 points. Sydney Lawlor (15) and Katie Vidito (7) were Stonepark’s top scorers. “Everybody stepped up their game, and they knew what they had to,” said MacDonald, who described the victory as a “team win.” To illustrate how close the game was, the teams were tied 7-7 after one quarter, 20-20 at halftime and the Owls took a 30-29 advantage into the final eight minutes. The Owls’ biggest lead in the game was four points in the second quarter, and the Tigers led by as many as five early in the fourth.
“We called a timeout a minute, minute and a half into the fourth quarter just to settle the kids down,” said MacDonald. “They scored four quick ones and we knew we had to stop it. “We just wanted to get the kids under control, settle down, go through what we know we can do and execute.” MacLean was named the provincial championship tournament’s most valuable player.
“Paige is just a phenomenal kid, not only on the basketball court but off the basketball court,” said MacDonald.
“She is the consummate team player, coachable, great kid and is so athletic. She does anything you ask her to do and more, and
is as tough as nails.”
Bronze medal
In the bronze-medal game, the Queen Charlotte Coyotes outscored the Birchwood Cobras 49-35 at SIS on Tuesday afternoon.
Sydney Strain scored a gamehigh 28 points, including 14 in the opening half, to lead Queen Charlotte, which jumped out to an early 16-5 first-quarter lead. Amy Plaggenhoef had 19 to pace Birchwood’s offence.