Crusaders are cruising
Waterloo-Oxford off to 3-0 start, suddenly looking like a contender
KITCHENER — The Waterloo-Oxford Crusaders are just three games into their season and have already improved on last year’s totals.
Emily Glendinning and MacKeely Shantz posted 18point performances Thursday as the Baden girls rolled to a 46-19 win over the Cameron Heights Golden Gaels in Waterloo County senior high school basketball play. The Crusaders, who could only manage two victories last year, improved to 3-0 on the campaign and appear to be one of several teams in the championship hunt.
A pair of Grade 10 additions — Madison Sadler and Shantz — have made an immediate impact on the Crusaders’ senior roster. Sadler missed Thursday’s game because of dental surgery, while Shantz came off the bench and had a dominant performance.
“MacKeely adds a lot. She’s one of our top players and she adds scoring, she adds defence, and she’s just an overall great player. And Madi, she’s a really good shooter that jacks up threes when we need her to,” said Glendinning.
“We all just get along and we play well together as a team. It’s totally different from last year, we’re much stronger and we’re having a lot more fun.”
Waterloo-Oxford scored 28 consecutive points against Cameron Heights and was never seriously threatened. The Gaels led 6-4 at the midway point of the first quarter but didn’t post another point until the third quarter when a basket by Mariah Zervos cut the Crusaders’ lead to 32-8.
Olivia Lennon led Cameron Heights with eight points and Laura Weber added six.
The Sir John A. Macdonald Highlanders would have been favoured to three-peat as WCSSAA champions — they defeated Cameron Heights in last year’s final — but hugely talented Kate Moran opted to continue her education and basketball career at The Rise Centre academy in Brantford.
Moran’s absence, according to Glendinning, moved the Crusaders and several other teams into the title hunt.
“Kate was almost too good for the league, I think. She could shoot, she could drive, she could post up, she could play defence, and she’s just a great player overall,” she said.
“You need to have height to play against her and if you don’t have height, she’s unstoppable. I think it makes the league fairer because they can’t just lob the ball to her.”
Two years ago, Glendinning was on the Waterloo-Oxford senior squad that fell to SJAM in the final. Moran, in Grade 9 at the time, scored 24 points.
SJAM remains one of the teams to beat, although the Highlanders suffered a surprising one-point loss to the Waterloo Vikings on Tuesday.
The Gaels’ hopes of reaching another WCSSAA final were lessened earlier this month when Nina Farkic, the league’s MVP last season, decided to sit the year out.