Royals girls take silver at hoops tourney
Less than two minutes away from being ousted in the quarter-finals, the No. 3-seeded Lajeunesse Royals rallied to reach the championship final at the OFSAA girls’ A basketball championship in North Bay on Saturday.
After knocking off the No. 2-ranked Breslau Woodland Christian Cavs 40-34 in the semis, the Royals wound up with the silver medal after falling in Saturday’s gold-medal final 49-39 to the No. 1-seeded Timmins O’Gorman Knights.
“Very happy with our final performance,” Royals head coach Linda Carriere said. “O’Gorman is a great basketball team.”
The Royals actually pulled to within four points of the Knights in the fourth quarter, but could not complete the comeback.
“We fought them hard, brought it within four points and played our hearts out,” Carriere said. Ashanti Christian led the Royals in the final with 17 points while Jamilah Christian had nine points and Olivia Scott finished with seven points.
The semifinal win was revenge for the Royals, who were ousted in the quarter-finals by Woodland Christian a year ago. Ashanti Christian had 15 points in that game with Jamilah Christian finished with 13 points and Scott seven points.
SOLID SILVER
The Windsor Legion’s Chase Canty won a silver medal in the boys’ under-18 division on Sunday at the National cross country championship in Kingston. Canty, who is a Massey high school student, won a bronze medal at the provincial championships two weeks ago, but upped his performance to capture the silver medal in the 6km race in 19 minutes and 7.9 seconds, which was just four seconds behind the winner. The Legion’s Andrew Davies finished eighth in the under-20 men’s 8km race in 25:21.5 while the University of Windsor Athletic Club’s Nick Falk placed 17th in the senior men’s 10km race in a time of 31:00.6.
AIGLES TITLE
The L’Essor Aigles captured the SWOSSAA football AA title with a 29-15 road win over the Wallaceburg Tartans on Saturday. Running back James Morales ran for three touchdowns for the Aigles while quarterback Michael Hyrniuk hit Payton Crawford with a touchdown pass for the other major of the game.
HELPING HAND
Windsor native Jamie McCurdy was part of the winning coaching staff for Detroit King Crusaders high school.
McCurdy coached defensive backs for King, which won the Michigan Division 3 football title on Saturday with a 41-25 victory over Muskegon at Ford Field.
LANCERS BASKETBALL
The University of Windsor Lancers men’s basketball team snapped a four-game OUA losing streak with a 95-84 win on the road over the University of Toronto Varsity Blues while the women’s team fell 67-62 to Toronto.
In the men’s game, Windsor got a 32-point effort from Telloy Simon while Damian Persaud had 24 points and Chris Poloniato finished with 16 points for the Lancers (3-6) against the Varsity Blues (3-6). In the women’s game, the Lancers built a five-point lead in the first quarter, but could not extend it in the loss.
Carly Steer finished with 15 points to lead the Lancers (4-5). Olivia Osamusali had 14 points and 15 rebounds against the Varsity Blues (3-6).
SHARK ATTACK
Cole Butler’s power-play goal at 2:52 of overtime gave the Wheatley Sharks a 5-4 road win over the Petrolia Flyers in Bill Stobbs Division play in the Provincial Junior Hockey League on Saturday. The Sharks (11-10-0-1) also got single goals from Mason Gow, Mitch Krieger, Lucas Bersuk and Braedon Caetano against the Flyers (5-14-0-3).