Trenton Catholic Prep nips Northern Burlington

HAMILTON » Kayla Oliphant helped her new teammates at Trenton Catholic Preparatory Academy get an early Christmas present Wednesday when she scored the decisive bucket to give the Mikes their first victory of the 202122 season, a 34-33 win over Northern Burlington High at the Sister Dorothy Payne Iron Palace.

A year ago, Oliphant was playing at STEMCivics in Ewing before transferring to TCPA after the school avoided closure at the end of the 2020-21 school year.

The 5-foot-7 sophomore guard/forward has always been a scorer. Alongside Mikes' 5-7 sophomore guard Cianni Thompson, one of first-year head coach Sean Smith's two returning players, Oliphant still gets plenty of good looks like she did with 41.2 seconds left yesterday.

Oliphant made a drive through the lane, slicing through three players on her way to a layup which proved to be the game's final points. Not that she and Greyhounds' 5-11 junior forward Angie Binns did not have opportunities to adjust that score, but missed front ends of 1-and1s left the home team with the one-point victory.

“We were in a groove early on,” Oliphant said. “Then they went zone, and we had some trouble. But we got back in it. We knew we had to play better defense.”

Trenton Catholic Prep (1-1) had opened a 7-1 lead in the first quarter, but saw Northern (0-3) outscore it, 28-19, over the second and third quarters to give first-year head coach Ed Fitzpatrick's

Greyhounds a 2926 lead heading into the final stanza.

“I'd say we've improved,” said Binns, whose 12 points and 12 rebounds off the bench paced the visitors. Today was a lot better.

“In the middle of the game, we were getting open more with good ball movement. After the first quarter, we took the game more patiently and moved around instead of freezing up against their defense.”

With newcomer Olivia Frye adding nine points, Northern Burlington surged to its first lead, 22-21, with 5:04 left in the third quarter. The Greyhounds stretched the lead to 29-22 on Charlotte Burke's follow-up shot with 1:48 left in that quarter.

However, Gayelle Labissiere's long two-point basket started a 12-4 closing surge by the Mikes. Labissiere chipped in nine points to add some punch to a TCPA lineup which received 11 points, 15 rebounds and eight steals from Thompson and 12 points from Oliphant to tie Binns for the game high

“It's been good here,” Oliphant said. “I'm trying to get more girls, even those who don't play a lot, involved. We've wanted to pass the ball more.”

That will come with time, but for now, Trenton Catholic Prep can enjoy getting its first win three days before Christmas.