Holy Names Knights win girls AAA title
As it has been for the past half decade, the Holy Names Knights and St. Anne Saints slugged it out for the WECSSAA girls’ AAA basketball title on Sunday.
Shaking off a double-digit loss to the Saints in the regular season, the Knights claimed their third title in five years with a 47-39 win over St. Anne at Lajeunesse high school.
“It’s crazy,” Knights point guard Shaelynn Murphy said. “It’s always back and forth with us.”
The top-seeded Knights closed the game with a 9-0 run over the final four minutes to secure the title and gain revenge against the only team to beat them in the regular season.
“Whenever we play them, it’s really anyone’s game because they play so hard against us and we do the same against them,” said Knights head coach Sean Culhane, whose team lost 47-33 to the Saints at home in the regular season. “It really could have gone either way.”
The Knights trailed by eight points after the first quarter, but rallied to pull even at the half and the teams went back and forth in the second half.
“The energy was better,” the 15-year-old Murphy said of her team’s effort the second time around against St. Anne. “Everyone was more amped and ready.”
Murphy led the Knights with 18 points and 13 of those came in the second half for the Grade 10 student. Claire Lamarre had 23 points for the Saints.
“She (Murphy) was contemplating staying in junior, but I thought she needed to be pushed and wanted her to play up,” said Culhane, who leaned on Murphy with starters Chloe Vidamour and Alessandra Caccavo having fouled out. “She’s had a phenomenal year.
“She doesn’t get rattled, she’s a leader in Grade 10, she doesn’t come off the floor, she runs the point and down the stretch she’s played her best basketball.”
Meanwhile, the Essex Red Raiders repeated as senior girls’ AA champions with a 39-28 win over the Kennedy Clippers.
The second-seeded Red Raiders, who lost to the top-seeded Clippers by three points in the regular season, got 17 points from Kim Orton and 12 points from Vanessa Gualderi, who hit four three-point shots.
Maddy Bishop had 18 points for the Clippers, who were making their first appearance in a final since 1995.
The Lajeunesse Royals grabbed another WECSSAA senior girls’ A title with a 61-39 victory of United Mennonite Education Institute.
Jamilah Christian led all game scorers with 23 points for the topseeded Royals while Ashanti Christian added 12 points. Emma Bedal had 16 points and Fiona Tiessen finished with 10 points for UMEI.
Villanova took the junior girls’ AAA final with a 48-36 win over St. Anne while Kingsville beat Sandwich 56-24 to win the junior girls’ AA final.