‘Double positive’
Churchill puts points on the board, takes crowd out of game, in Day 1 win over Crossley
Sir Winston Churchill head coach Frank Keltos had two assignments for his team on opening day of the 14th Tribune Girls Basketball Tournament.
He wanted the Bulldogs to put points on the scoreboard, and he wanted the team to take a buyout crowd at E.L. Crossley Secondary School out of the game.
They accomplished both jobs. Led by Kaley Demont’s game-high 19 points, Churchill defeated the host Cyclone 61-46 in qualifyinground action Wednesday in Pelham.
Expect for the second quarter, when Crossley outscored the Bulldogs 20-10, the crowd wasn’t much of a factor as Churchill advanced to the championship side of the bracket at the four-day, 16-team tournament.
“They had a nice crowd here,” Keltos said. “They hit four of five threes in the second quarter to get back into the game.”
That’s as close as the Cyclone would get to sending the ’Dogs to the curb and relegating them to the B side of the bracket.
Churchill, which clung to a 3027 lead at the half after cruising into the second quarter up 20-7, began the final half with an eightpoint run to regain the momentum. Score after three quarters of play was 45-36 in favour of the Bulldogs.
“I said to them at half, ‘Enough being nice and letting them have their home crowd, let’s play some good D, get a lead and go from there,’” Keltos said. “And they responded.
“We hit some shots early and turned the ball over on them on four possessions in a row.
“That was kind of the ballgame.”
Churchill, which lost the championship final by two points to the A.N. Myer Marauders at the Standard Girls Basketball Tournament last week in St. Catharines, know all about the pressure of playing before a packed house on their home court. In their opening game at that tournament, the Bulldogs held on to defeat the Greater Fort Erie Gryphons by three points.
“Every buyout game is always hard because the kids are trying so hard,” Keltos said. “Those are their friends, their classmates in the stands.
“It’s your school, so you have a little bit more to play for.”
And, on the flipside, is there pressure that goes hand-in-hand with feasting on home cooking?
“There’s tons of pressure,” Keltos responded with a chuckle. “We saw that last week at the Standard Tournament against (Greater) Fort Erie.
“They got the best of us. We didn’t play particularly great and that motivated them.”
The Churchill coach described the win over Crossley as a “double victory.” Not only did the Bulldogs win, but they handled the pressure of playing away from home in front of a large crowd.
“Those games are big for us to get that experience,” Keltos said. “Today was a double positive for us.”
Bethany Nicholls, a Grade 11 student playing in her first Tribune Tournament, scored 14 points in the loss for Crossley.
She likes playing at home — “I feel more comfortable playing here” — but admitted basketballs weren’t the only things flying around in the packed gym as tipoff approached.
There were some butterflies as well.
“There was so many people watching, but during the game I felt that the crowd helped our team a lot,” she said. “The fans that Crossley has are very supportive.
“It just makes our team play better.”
Nicholls, who earned player of the game honours for the Cyclone, wasn’t overly disappointed with the result.
“It was one of our best games,” she said. “The more games we play, the better we play as a team.”
Crossley head coach Aaron Belding felt the same way.
“This team is much improved,” he said. “Defence was way better than it was last week.”
Priority for the Cyclone moving forward in the tournament — and for the remainder of the season — is to become more consistent in scoring.
“We had lots of chances (today) that we just bulleted off the backboard or the hit the undersides of the rims.
Both teams are back on the court today with Churchill playing the host Cougars in a championship quarter-final at Welland Centennial at 3:30 p.m.
On the consolation side, it’s Crossley facing the Grimsby Eagles in a 2 p.m. tipoff, also at Welland Centennial.
The Cougars defeated Grimsby 55-39 in Day 1 action.