Bulldogs overcome adversity
Churchill, Denis Morris take titles at Standard girls basketball tournament
The Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs won the gold medal at the 19th Standard Girls High School Basketball Tournament Friday night in St. Catharines, but it wasn’t handed to them on a silver platter.
On the first play on the first day of the four-day, 16-team tournament, guard Lauren Vanecko hurt her knee and was knocked out of the Bulldogs lineup for the game and for the tournament; in the final game, a nailbiter against the top-seeded Eden Flyers, Ally Sentance, another key contributor for Churchill, was sitting helplessly on the bench in the late going in foul trouble.
In the end, the Bulldogs were able to outscore adversity just like they had outscored the Saint Paul Patriots, Saint Francis Phoenix and Blessed Trinity Thunder on their way to a 47-41 victory over the Flyers.
It was Churchill’s sixth straight appearance on the final night of the Standard Tournament and the St. Catharines school’s second overall championship and first since 2012.
“For us this tournament is like the gravy on the turkey, it’s always Thanksgiving weekend,” head coach Frank Keltos said with a laugh. “It sounds like a cliche of some sort but really it’s gravy.”
Churchill didn’t know what to expect after Vanecko was knocked out of the tournament and Megan Barker, Kennedy Millin and Ella Turner, all in Grade 9, were called up from the junior team.
They answered the call, and then some.
“They played key minutes in this game, rebounding, defending,” Keltos said, praising the play of the callups. “You don’t see them on the scoreboard, because they didn’t score, but they did a lot of incidental stuff.
“We had foul troubles with Ally, we had foul trouble with Reagan (Edmonds), so they came in big.”
In the last timeout the thirdseeded Bulldogs were told if they could just execute and run off of their screens with speed, they could make Eden chase the ball.
“We’re quicker, they’re tired, and we started to hit our screens,” he said.
Friday night’s gold-medal game was a roller-coaster of emotions for Sentance, who won the tournament’s most valuable award despite sitting on the bench for part of the game with four fouls. Recognition as the top player at the showcase caught her by surprise.
“My teammates did really well out there, they were really hitting shots and I was kind of struggling,” she said. “It’s an honour that I got it and I feel really good about it.”
A Grade 10 student playing in her second Standard Tournament, Sentance felt bad about taking “stupid fouls” early in the game against Eden.
“I felt like I kind of let my team down,” she said. “I wanted to be out there to help them and help them get this win, but just taking those stupid fouls they sat me on the bench and I just couldn’t do much.”
“I take a lot of stupid fouls, I reach a lot when I shouldn’t.”
The team was in a good motion when Sentance returned to the game.
“We were scoring, we were having a good flow, and we were playing good defence,” she said. “If I just kept my hands out, even if my man blew by me, I had to trust my teammates would be there and they were.
“They stopped them from scoring, which was really nice to know so I didn’t have to get fouled out.”
Eden head coach Brian MacIsaac said the only thing he didn’t like about the game was the result.
“We played hard and we played well, we just couldn’t seem to finish,” he said. “We were stuck on 34 points there for a long time.
“I give Sir Winston’s coaches and players a lot of credit, they played a fantastic game, as we expected.
“They played very intensely, they were able to cause us some turnovers, and they defended the basket really well.”
MacIsaac, whose Flyers defeated Churchill by 19 points at the Saint Francis tournament, expects to play the Bulldogs a few more times this year, perhaps as early as next week at the Tribune Tournament in Welland.
“We’re probably going to see them three more times this year,” he said. “It’s one game each, so we’ll see where it goes.”
Sentance, with a game-high 19 points; and Kaley Demont, 13; scored in double digits for Churchill. Maddalyn Weinert, 13; and Avery Cushing were top scorers for Eden.
Three Bulldogs — Olivia Krieger, Demont, Sentance — made the all-star team as did three Flyers — Mackenzie Schroeder, Cushing and Weinert.
Reds 63, Patriots 38
Lexxus Bell scored 20 points, Jordyn Britton 18 and Rayshell Nyamekye 15 to help Denis Morris defeat Saint Paul in the consolation championship.
“I think our height was key, and feeding the ball inside,” Reds head coach Stefanie DeMizio said. “We had a clear height advantage, and our goal was to get the ball inside to our bigs, to attack the basket.”
Denis Morris had a scare early in the first quarter when Bell, the team’s starting point guard, took a knee to the hip and left the game.
“If she wasn’t able to go, it would have been a struggle throughout the game,” DeMizio said. “She is a resilient girl, she fought through it and came back on the court.”
The Reds went 3-0 on the B side of the bracket after losing on their home court to the Greater Fort Erie Gryphons before a nearcapacity crowd.
“Our opening-round game was a bit of a struggle, we didn’t play to the best of our ability, but we’ve redeemed ourselves,” DeMizio said. “After our start, this is the best way to battle back and show the girls that we can play and we have fight in us and we can bounce back from anything that’s thrown at us.”
Bell said it was difficult to rebound from the loss to Fort Erie in the qualifying round.
“We had to redeem ourselves,” she said. “It was pretty hard, it was pretty nerve-wracking playing in front of our whole school.
“We just knew we had to push harder to get that next win.”
Tournaments are important learning experiences for the Grade 11 student.
“It’s always fun to win, but if we lose we just learn from it and push harder the next game.”
Denis Morris’s shots were falling from the outset of the game as were Bell’s. That, she said, is always a good sign.
“I can’t speak for the other players but For me, once I’m on I’m on. If I’m off, I’m off,” she said.
Keira Federenko, Julianna Fabiano and Livia Piccirillo netted 11, 10 and six points, respectively, for the Patriots.
“For us this tournament is like the gravy on the turkey, it’s always Thanksgiving weekend.”
FRANK KELTOS Sir Winston Churchill senior girls basketball head coach