E.L. Crossley comes in from the cold

The E.L. Crossley Cyclone couldn’t have picked a better time to come in from the cold and rediscovering their scoring touch.

After taking an 11-0 lead into second quarter versus the host Redcoats in Standard Girls Basketball Tournament consolation quarter-final action at Governor Simcoe Secondary School, the Cyclone appeared well on their way to a convincing victory, perhaps by double digits.

But a triple whammy of Simcoe’s Allie Addy nailing three-pointers in rapid-fire success, for a game 21 points before she was finished, cold shooting on Crossley’s part and success rate of only 25 per cent from the free-throw line, 3-of-12, conspired to knock the wind out of the Cyclone.

At halftime the Redcoats had narrowed the deficit to 18-9, thanks to two threes from Addy and one from Emma Dakin.

With eights minute remaining in regulation Simcoe was up 2422, but the buzzer sounding the start of the final quarter turned out to the wake-up call Crossley needed.

The Cyclone outscored the Redcoats 9-4 and, just as importantly, kept the ball out of Addy’s red-hot hand by outrebounding Simcoe by a wide margin.

Their 31-28 victory Wednesday in St. Catharines sets the stage for a consolation semifinal against the Grimsby Eagles, also at Simcoe, and keeps the Cyclone on track to win their first Standard Tournament B championship since 2015.

Emily Bonisteel, who paced Crossley in scoring with 12 points, said her team never gave up in the elimination game.

“We were still working hard, they just came out strong and but we kept pushing,” the Grade 11 student said in praising how the Redcoats got back into the game. “Eventually, we pushed through.” She credited lessons learned in the Cyclone’s previous four games this season, all of them losses, with helping the team finish strong against Simcoe.

“We’ve been working really hard on breaking a press on offence and that helped a lot to help us feel confident we could get to the basket.”

Addy said a number of factors contributed to her team’s disappointing home-court loss.

“Not scoring in the first hurt us, because we had to score in the first,” she said.

Poor rebounding on Simcoe’s part kept Crossley in the game and tilted momentum to the Cyclone’s side of the court in the final quarter.

“We have to box out way more than we do already.”

See

Redcoats head coach John Ingribelli said the “mental mistakes” that are part and parcel of the growing pains of a young team were evident in a game that dropped his team’s overall record to 4-6.

“We’re a young team, I keep telling the kids ‘We have to figure this game out,” he said. “I keep telling them, ‘We’re young, we’re inexperienced, just keep the game simple.’”

Only two to three players on the Redcoats roster have any experience playing basketball outside of school on travel teams.

“Most of our starting five is juniors.”

With tournaments such as the Standard in St. Catharines and next week’s Tribune Tournament in Welland part of the ongoing process to develop a contender come playoff time, Ingribelli used the game as a teaching moment.

“That first quarter hurt us,” he said. “I sort of took a step back and let the kids figure out how to get back into the game.”

Eagles 65, Golden Eagles 45

At Simcoe, Grimsby won the battle of the birds and knocked Thorold out of contention for the consolation championship at the 18th annual Standard Girls Basketball Tournament.

Jujana Vukovic and Paige Epp scored 25 and 23 points, respectively, for an Eagles team that rebounded from a qualifying-round loss to the defending champion Jean Vanier Lynx on Day 1 of the four-day, 16-team tournament.

Rachel Gillespie, 13 points, and Mia Nicholson, 11, topped Thorold in scoring.

The Denis Morris Reds, 4135 victors over the Greater Fort Erie Gryphons; and the Holy Cross Raiders, who defeated the Saint Paul Patriots 37-31; will play each other in Thursday’s other consolation semifinal at Simcoe.