Senior Girls D3 Basketball

SG Basketball D2: CAIS tournament in Toronto

Eric Van Dyke & Amy Wolfe
Reflections – Sipping at the Stream of Consciousness
 
......musings, observations and the occasional insight from the CAIS National Tournament
this past weekend in Toronto, Ontario.

G
ame scores first. In round-robin play we went undefeated, beating the host school B.S.S. (Toronto, Ont) 42-22, Sacred Heart (Montreal, Que) 49-26, and Gray Academy (Winnipeg, Manitoba) 43-20. This earned us a tough quarterfinal match against ECS (Montreal) which we lost 39-29. Despite being knocked out of contention, the final game of the tourney vs St. Clement’s (Toronto) was a thrilling 46-43 win…
 
…the first quarter of the opening game of the tournament was a perfect example of “not getting
off the bus”, as we sleepwalked through the first 8 minutes of this 9:00 am game, unfocused, low intensity, barely awake. The good news, however, is that the players learned their lesson; we had an even earlier game (8:30 am) the next day, but this time the girls came out aggressive from the opening whistle…
 
…scoring at speed on the fast break is tough, but Rosy Ladouceur is starting to make it look easy, with athletic catches in transition and impressive high-speed finishes…
 
…with 29 rebounds in the last 3 games (16 offensive!), Alyssa MacPherson has officially turned the corner.
Not only is she now a force on the boards, she ENJOYS being a force on the boards, and that intensity
spills over into every other part of her game. Way to go, Alyssa!...
 
Alex Smith was asked to play the middle of the zone several times this past weekend, and made
great strides. Apparently she knew what she was talking about in the huddle, i.e. “Watch and learn, Kenz!”…
 
Statline Of The Week 
Mackenzy St-Pierre vs Sacred Heart; 16 pts, 15 rebs, 4 steals, 3 assists, 5 blocks. All-round domination.
 
Abby Murray is so much more poised with the basketball this season, i.e. her decision-making is leaps and bounds improved over last year, and she is now someone the offense can play through
 
…the coaching staff specifically asked for “deflections” in the final game vs SCS, as they are the backbone of our defense. The team responded with 25 deflections and 8 steals. Fantastic!…
 
Jeniva C had her best two games of the season back-to-back vs Sacred Heart and Gray Academy; focused defense, steals, rebounds, and some nice baseline shots vs the zone…
 
Statistic Of The Week
Kenz (19) and Alyssa (14) hauled in 33(!) rebounds between them in the quarterfinals vs ECS, with 15 of those being offensive rebounds. That, my friends, is the most dominant performance on the glass that I’ve ever coached. St-Pierre and MacPherson – The Twin Towers – has a nice ring to it.
 
Mariama Barry had her best game of the season vs St. Clement’s, confident and aggressive on offense, intelligent and dangerous on defense. Bright future, that one.
 
…other players improving on defense are Samantha Smith and Lea-Rose Remillard. Sam is learning to aggressively attack perimeter passes from her wing-forward position, and Lea-Rose is adding rebounding and poise to her already impressive defensive instincts.
 
…two things I really liked about your Spartans at this tournament; 1) the camaraderie with other schools, and 2) our reputation at the tournament for being hardworking and always classy
 
Van Pham has come a long way from last year. Her jump shot is much-improved, but even
more importantly her defense gets better every game, i.e. rotations, chasing down rebounds, even pulling
off a 2-handed “Kenz steal” vs Gray Academy, nice!...
 
…despite playing against players much older than she is, Rosema Lefebvre is developing into quite
the outside shooter, shooting with confidence and conviction. Oh, and she also likes to block shots.
 
…the barnburner vs St. Clement’s featured the most exciting stretch of basketball of the weekend,
i.e. in a nailbiting 4th quarter SCS super-guard #15 hits a three, but Emily Willis answers with a triple of her own, then #15 right away nails another three, and Emily immediately answers AGAIN! Four straight
bombs from downtown in about 20 seconds, crazy stuff!...
 
Top 4 Quotes Of The Week
 
#4)   Alex, walking down a Toronto street during the insanity of Black Friday: “my head feels fuzzy, I think I
            just inhaled five different kinds of drugs”
 
#3)   Kenz, waiting for the SC bus outside The York School; “How does Moses make tea? He brews it.”
            (And then, of course, laughing like a deranged loon).
 
#2)  “maybe I should just corner him over there, lean back, choppy feet, you know, close out HARD” – a
            player who shall remain un-named, joking about what to do about her crush on an opposing coach
 
#1)   when asked if she liked the High School MusicalTM trilogy, Rosema, who had never seen the movies
before, replies “well…there’s an awful lot of singing.”
 
Yes, friends and neighbours, I present to you Sr Girls Basketball 2018-19.
 
Overall, a successful tournament, ladies. We learned a lot, we bonded, and we made some great memories. (AND we got to see Rina!)
 
Now let’s take all that we learned on the court and USE IT TO GET BETTER.
 

~ Coaches Van Dyke & Wolfe
Back