On the offence
Isabella MacKay of the NNEC Gryphons looks to the basket against the Horton Griffins at high school provincials yesterday.
At times, they were tantalizingly close.
The NNEC Gryphons, hosting this year’s provincial Division 1 girls basketball championships, lost 69-55 to the No. 1-seeded Horton High School Griffins on Thursday afternoon.
In a high-tempo game of momentum swings at the NNEC gym Horton led by two points late in the first half, but two three-pointers from Calla Newcomb — she hit from long range six times in the first half alone and finished with 21 points overall — helped stretch the Horton lead to 39-29 at the break.
“Every time we started coming back, she’d step up and make a big shot,” NNEC coach Andy MacKay said of the Horton shooter.
North Nova fought back in the third quarter and whittled the deficit to two, but Horton went on a 16-0 run that spanned the latter stages of the third quarter and into the fourth, building a lead the Gryphons would not be able to overcome.
Lucia MacKay led NNEC with 18 points. Courtney Smith and Abbie Delaney each had nine.
“We gassed out, we had kids cramping out early in the second half — it wasn’t sloppiness, it was just gassing out, our kids didn’t have enough left to match their intensity,” said MacKay.
“We had a couple of nice runs but couldn’t maintain.
“We came out with the goal of winning that first three minutes and we did, but that took a lot of energy to do that. Lucia (MacKay) and Abbie (Delaney) were both cramping and they just didn’t have the energy any more.”
North Nova will play at 2 p.m. Friday in the consolation round and can still finish as high as fifth place in the eight-team tournament.
“We want to make ourselves and our school proud, we want to go out and win two games now,” MacKay said.
NNEC Gryphons roster
5: Raegan MacDonald (Grade 10 guard)
6: Jade Butler (Grade 10 guard) 7: Abbie Delaney (Grade 12 guard)
8: Isabella MacKay (Grade 9 guard)
9: Jaden MacEachern (Grade 10 forward)
10: Madelyn MacMillan (Grade 10 forward)
11: Lucia MacKay (Grade 12 guard)
12: Sarah O’Neil (Grade 11 forward)
13: Courtney Smith (Grade 12 forward)
22: Kassi Brightman (Grade 10 forward)