SG Basketball @ CAIS: The Spartan Way

Game scores first. In round-robin play we went undefeated, beating Ridley College (Toronto, Ont.) 42-24 on Thursday morning and then Elmwood School (Ottawa, Ont.) 54-26 on Thursday afternoon. On Friday we split our two games – a 37-18 win vs The Sacred Heart School Of Montreal and a 24-32 loss to West Island College (Montreal, QC). This earned us a tough semi-final match against Rothesay Netherwood School (Rothesay, New Brunswick), which we lost in a spirited effort 35-52.

Samantha Smith played like a real veteran against Ridley, earning her Player of the Game honours with her aggressive defence and all-around solid play.

Against Elmwood, Player of the Game Elisabeth Shane had one of her signature games, scoring 25 points in a variety of ways AND directing the defence AND dominating the defensive glass AND leading the fast break. A close second place was Mariama Barry who slickly pumped in 20 points, many in transition.

At the end of Day 1, right before leaving the gym to get on the bus back to the hotel, the students who worked as minor officials during the day (who also happened to play on the RNS varsity boys basketball team) came up to me to ask me about our defence, specifically to compliment me on how active and effective it was, i.e. “the coolest zone” they’d ever seen. I’ll not soon forget that (although some of the girls on the team may remember those young men for different reasons…).

The game vs Sacred Heart wasn’t pretty. Buckets were hard to come by. We prevailed mainly due to toughness, led by Player of the Game Lea-Rose Remillard, who is as tough as they come.

Comeback of the Weekend: getting shut out in the first quarter vs WIC, falling behind 17-0 before scoring our first points, but never giving up, chipping away until we were within 3 points in the fourth quarter. Ultimately we couldn’t come all the way back, but what an impressive effort.

Sharpshooter Rosemary Lefebvre made 12(!) three-pointers over the course of the tournament, all while dealing with the pain of shin splints. Tough player, that Rosema.

Juliette Veilleux’s nose for loose balls is second to none. Cecilia Fava’s “bumping” is already the most instinctive and efficient on the team.

Best stretch of the tournament (and probably the year, so far) was the first quarter vs RNS. Against a superior opponent and a hostile crowd, your Spartans played 8 intense, near-perfect minutes of dominating, befuddling defence and opportunistic offence to take the quarter 13-10. The feeling as the players high-fived their way to the bench at the end of the quarter was a-MA-zing. Did we really just do that?! Damn right we did!

Speaking of the semi-final vs RNS, Player of the Game Charlotte Riddell should look back on that game as the moment she turned a corner, i.e. if you can play with that much speed and poise against a powerhouse like RNS in their own gym, then you can confidently play against anybody.

My favourite baskets of CAIS 2019: third place – Cecilia Fava for the first time attacking and finishing right away vs RNS; second place – Mariama starting her Eurostep before catching the pass from Rosema and finishing; and 1st place – Elisabeth stealing the ball under Sacred Heart’s basket, missing the shot, getting the offensive rebound, missing, rebounding, missing, rebounding AGAIN, and finally scoring. The word “quit” is not in that girl’s vocabulary.

At one point there were players from three different schools (SC, WIC, ECS) tik-tokking (is that a word?) some kind of basketball conga line on the court during halftime of one of the semis. When high school sports produces that kind of bonding between schools, you know we’re doing it right.

Well done, ladies! Top 4 at the National CAIS tournament is something to be proud of. But ultimately, the only way to judge whether a tournament like this was successful is to answer three questions, i.e. 1) did we improve as a team? 2) did we bond as a team? 3) did we make some good memories? So, given those criteria, was CAIS 2019 a successful tournament?

Yes sir! (just ask that Thomas guy!)