Cougars 2-0 at OFSAA

The Centennial Cougars senior girls basketball team opened the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations AA championship in dramatic fashion Thursday, eeking out a narrow 47-45 victory over a solid Lasalle Knights squad in its opening round-robin game of the 10-team event.

Later in the day, the Cougars improved to 2-0 with a 59-31 win over the King’s Christian Collegiate Cavaliers.

Clinging to a precarious 47-45 advantage against Lasalle, the Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association champions forced a five-second count on an inbounds play with 17.7 seconds remaining and then caused two Lasalle turnovers in the dying seconds to preserve the victory.

“That was awesome. It was a good game and a good win,” Centennial coach Craig Maltais said. “It was an early-morning start for us and we have only played one game before 3 p.m. all year so it was different rolling out of bed and coming to the gym to play.

“I think we were a little bit slower starting then we wanted to be and in got tense at the end, but it’s a two-point victory and we will take it.”

Centennial was able to answer every run by Lasalle with one of its own.

“We have been mentally strong all year and it is one of the major strengths of our team being able to understand that basketball is a game of runs,” Maltais said.

As usual, the Cougars were led by the play of Alexis Wright and Jayda Rodrigue, but Maltais knows success at OFSAA will come from contributions from the other members of the team.

“We have to play full-team basketball on both ends of the floor,” he said. “We have to be able to create space on offence and on defence we have to buy in especially on help side,” he said. “Today we were able to do that and we have one W in the book.”

Contributing in a big way for the Cougars against Lasalle was 5-foot-8 post player Jessica Gibson.

“Jessica plays really, really hard and late in the season she has come on super strong,” Maltais said. “She has been a really important part of our offence and she is the only true centre we have on our team.”

Gibson is a force on the boards and sets some mean screens.

“She has a little bit of grit which is great to have,” Maltais said.

The 12B student also pitched in with some scoring Thursday morning, netting eight points.

“I go in the middle and set screens because I am not much of a shooter,” 18-year-old Welland resident said. “I leave the shooting to to everyone else and the odd ones I will take if I am open.”

She was more than happy with her offensive output versus Lasalle.

“I was really shocked to be honest. It was like ‘Oh, they went in.’ ”

Gibson came back for 12B to earn more credits and playing basketball was an added bonus. Her late-season improved play has been a bonus for the Cougars.

“I feel that I am playing a bit more aggressive and I am a little more confident,” she said. “I am not much of a basketball player like Alexis, Jayda or any of them.”

She like setting screens a lot more than shooting the ball.

“I tend to miss like those two air balls there,” she said, with a laugh.

Gibson is enjoying ending her high school sports career with an OFSAA appearance.

“I am really excited because this is my first time going to OFSAA,” she said. “I am happy that it is close by because I don’t know if I would have been allowed to go because of COVID. And because it is here, I can come and drive myself.”

On Friday at Saint Paul, Centennial plays King’s Christian at 10:30 a.m. and Saint Ignatius at 6:30 p.m.

Semifinals will be played Saturday at 9 a.m. at Saint Paul and Saint Michael. Both medal games will be contested at Saint Paul with the bronze-medal game going at 2 p.m. and the championship game at 3:30 p.m.

STATS PACK

Cougars 47 Knights 45

Cat’s Caboose Player of the Game: Centennial’s Alexis Wright with 16 points.

For the Centennial Cougars: Wright (16); Jayda Rodrigue (15); Jessica Gibson (8); Audrey Bevacqua (5); Jenna Dobbie (3).

For the Lasalle Knights: Hailey Twigg (20); Teegan Whitney (11); Ella Pratt Vallier (10); Ella Ubdergrove (2); Leah Scott (2).

Cougars 59 Crusaders 31

Jayda Rodrigue poured in 32 points to lead the Centennial Cougars to a 59-31 win over the King’s Christian Collegiate Cavaliers in OFSAA round-robin play.

Also scoring for the Cougars were Alexis Wright (13), Audrey Bevacqua (4) Jenna Dobbie (2), Jessica Gibson (2) and Emma Smith (2).

“We played well, especially in the second half, and Jayda had a realy good game tonight,” Maltais said. “It was nice that we were able to get contributions from our whole team tonight. We want to build off what we started today and continue tomorrow.”

Top scorers for King’s Christian Collegiate were Sidney DelGuidice with nine points and Natalia Butterfly with eight.