Bulldogs roll into BPSN semifinals
The steady play of point guard Kate Smyth helped the Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs senior girls basketball team defeat the Saint Paul Patriots 61-34 Wednesday night in championship quarter-final play in the Second Annual BPSN Girls Basketball Tournament at Churchill.
The Grade 11 student is a key cog in a squad that has aspirations to win an Ontario Federation of School Athletic Association’s AA championship after winning bronze at the AAA level last season.
“I definitely want to win as well so I feel that I have to get in the game, play well with my team, do what the coach says and really focus on that,” the 16-year-old said.
Smyth feels her team is even better than last year.
“We know how to play together, especially now coming off of COVID. We have the drive to get that gold at OFSAA and we are working really hard in practices and in games.”
Churchill coach Frank Keltos is a big fan of Smyth’s.
“Kate is the fastest kid I know. She is super athletic, a great kid, she listens and she just wants more. She is one of those kids who wants to compete.”
Smyth has added more of an offensive component to her game this season.
“It’s confidence,” Keltos said. “Last year we had a minimal amount of time in the gym and she wasn’t comfortable. Now she is looking for her shot and she is seeing the ball go through the hoop. That’s huge.”
Smyth, who scored eight against Saint Paul, knows chipping in on offence will be a big boost for the Bulldogs.
“For me, I am smaller than most of the girls and it is definitely important to get my shots up from outside the three line and help out the team in that way,” she said.
Smyth, who has been playing travel ball for the St. Catharines Rebels since Grade 4, is coming off a broken ankle suffered while playing high school soccer.
“It started to hurt a little tonight but I just had to get back in the game,” she said. “I try not to think about it.”
The Patriots started strong and lead 15-12 after one quarter. Despite a slew of turnovers, they only went into the half trailing 25-23. But then the championship pedigree of the Bulldogs took over and they built a commanding lead by outscoring the Patriots 24-4 in the third quarter.
“I think we just ran out of steam and we started making sloppy turnovers,” Saint Paul head coach Kristin McDonald said. “They are obviously a very talented team and if you make those mistakes you are going to pay for them.”
The Patriots went into halftime lamenting what might have been.
“I don’t want to look back and complain about all those (turnovers) but that was what our halftime talk was,” she said. “Our score should have been higher and we turned the ball over a lot.”
McDonald knew her squad had to play a near-perfect game to beat the Bulldogs.
“That quality of team is going to make you pay for every mistake you make and those are hard to recover from.”
Keltos felt there was a reason for the Bulldogs’ sluggish start.
“We have played a lot of basketball,” he said. “We have been going since last Wednesday. We played four games on the weekend in a tournament at Cathedral and then we had a league game on Monday. This was like game seven in six days. I think a little bit of fatigue set in and maybe we took them a little bit for granted because we are big and we thought we could cruise through it.”
Keltos ended up having to turn to a seldom-used portion of his coaching arsenal.
“I sort of had to yell at them. I don’t like to yell but sometimes they need a little anger to get them going,” he said. “We got our jets going in the third quarter. Part of our game is to wear teams down in the fourth quarter and their top there or four girls got real tired by the end.”
STATS PACK
Bulldogs 61 Patriots 34
Cat’s Caboose Player of the Game: Churchill’s Brookelyn Keltos with 29 points.
For the Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs: Keltos 29; Yemi Oladipo 11; Kate Smyth 8; Megan Barker 7; Morgan Barker 4.
For the Saint Paul Patriots: Ava Stranges 22; Brooke Lennox 5; Michaela Carbonaro 5; Sam Dino 2.
Up next: Consolation semifinals Thursday at Governor Simcoe: Smithville Christian vs. Saint Francis at 2:30 p.m. and Thorold vs. E.L. Crossley at 4 p.m. Championship semifinals Thursday at Governor Simcoe: Churchill vs. Eden at 5:30 p.m. and Myer vs. Notre Dame at 7:30 p.m.
STORM 41 MUSTANGS 36
Ava Froese poured in 20 points Wednesday to spark the Smithville Christian Storm to a 41-36 victory over the Saint Michael Mustangs in consolation quarter-final play in the Second Annual BPSN Girls Basketball Tournament at Churchill.
Also scoring for the Storm were Kyra VanGeest (10), Daniella Zondag (6), Addison Vandenberg (2), Bethany DeHaan (2) and Regina Mushegeera (1),
Replying for the Mustangs were Jaime Manlow (17), Olivia LaRose (10), Brianna DeMarchi (4), Taya Paone (3) and Serena D’Amico (2)
The tournament is made possible with the help of primary sponsors, Women Networking in Sports of Niagara and Tora Inc., and secondary sponsors, Alltech Automotive, St. Catharines CYO Basketball, Pelham Panthers basketball, Niagara Falls Red Raiders basketball, Niagara Rangers basketball and the Niagara District Referees Association.
