Gryphons soar on the road
Until bused students had to leave for their transportation home, bleachers in the gym at Denis Morris Catholic High School in St. Catharines was an almost uninterrupted sea of red.
Megan Louws didn’t let that take away her focus from the basketball in front of her, the teammates running beside her, the basket at the end of the court and from the task at hand.
After seven years playing travel basketball, Louws is used to playing on the road. She said the large crowd for the buyout game didn’t faze her.
“I just don’t pay attention, I just focus on the game,” the Grade 11 student said.
Louws scored a game-high 23 points to help the Greater Fort
Erie Gryphons to a 54-31 victory over the Denis Morris Reds in qualifying-round action at the Standard Girls High School Basketball Tournament.
Along with fellow travel players Kailee Barrett and Taylor Doyle, Louws is among the leaders on the court for the Gryphons. Though sometimes packed with pressure, it’s a role the onetime Fort Erie Secondary School
student appreciates.
“I like it a lot,” she said. “It doesn’t really get to me, I’m not scared.”
Head coach Dave Adamek, whose Gryphons lost to Denis Morris on Day 1 of the Standard Tournament last year, this time played well on both sides of the ball this time out.
“We always play defence, but today our shots were dropping,
too,” head coach Dave Adamek said after the Gryphons qualified to play the defending gold medallist A.N. Myer Marauders in the quarter-finals on the championship side of the bracket.
Myer tipped off the four-day, 16-team tournament by topping the Holy Cross Raiders 60-43.
Taylor netted 13 points for the Gryphons and Lexie Bell and
Jordyn Britton led Denis Morris in scoring with 12 and nine points, respectively.
Bulldogs 55, Patriots 24
At Sir Winston Churchill, the host Bulldogs bounced the Patriots to the B side of the bracket with a whistle-to-whistle win.
Kaley DeMont, with 13; Reagan Emond and Ally Sentence, 11 apiece; scored in double digits for Churchill.
A game played before a capacity-plus buyout crowd — spectators were sitting and standing in the weight area overlooking the gym — was DeMont’s second with the Bulldogs since transferring back from a new prep program operating out of Myer.
“I missed my friends and my team,” said the Grade 11 student who is playing in her third Standard Tournament. “This is my home.”
She said Churchill came into the tournament with some unfinished business after losing to Myer in last year’s final.
“This year we want redemption,” DeMont said. “We want to play Myer in the final again, and we want to beat them.”
Bulldogs guard Lauren Vanecko hurt her knee on the opening play and was knocked out of the game. Her availability for the rest of the tournament was not known at press time.
“We’ve got a deep bench,” head coach Frank Keltos said. “I’ve told the girls before every game you’ve got to win each day.”
For Churchill, a tournament so early in the season “our start to our climbing of the mountain.”
“I always give them the cliché we’re climbing the mountain and we want to be at the end at the peak, when we’re getting playoffs and SOSSA (Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association championships).”
Keltos said while wins are “great,” playing well is more important.
“Sometimes you’re going to lose, but if you play well and lose then the other team is better.”
The Saint Francis Phoenix, 32-22 victors over the Welland Centennial Cougars, will play the Bulldogs in a championship quarter-final tipping off 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Churchill.
Other Day 1 results: Governor Simcoe Redcoats 35, Jean Vanier Lynx 33; Eden Flyers 74, Saint Michael Mustangs 52; E.L. Crossley Cyclone 52, Grimsby Eagles 28; Blessed Trinity 67, Thorold 18.
Eden, Blessed Trinity, Churchill and Myer are the top four seeds. The 19th Standard Girls High School Basketball Tournament wraps with a championship doubleheader Friday at Simcoe.