A Thunderous showing
The Blessed Trinity Thunder turned heads at the inaugural Brock Women’s Basketball Invitational Wednesday at Canada Games Park.
The Thunder won all three of their games, topping Notre Dame 57-52, Sir Winston Churchill 50-46 in overtime and Holy Cross 33-23.
BT coach Gabe Diadamo was happy with the outcomes, particularly considering he tried to get the entire roster as much floor time as possible.
“We always want to win, that’s first and foremost. But I did make sure I wanted to get everybody in today too. It’s a balance of working with the younger girls and also making sure we win the game,” he said.
Diadamo was happy for the opportunity to play three games early in the season.
“The more games they play the more they learn to play together and the better off they will be in the future,” he said.
Diadamo feels his club is primed for a special year.
“I definitely think we’ve got the potential to go far this year so it’s win as best we can and growth. I always have to look to the future but this year we have a good team where I think we can go far,” he said.
The Raiders dropped all three of their games, but that didn’t deter head coach Erin Gauthier.
“I told the girls it’s better than showing up at 6:30 in the morning at Holy Cross and practising against each other. It gave us a chance to play more games to get us ready for the season,” she said.
Gauthier feels the experience will help the Raiders in the long run.
“We knew coming in here we were facing some tough teams but that’s what I want for the girls. I want them to get better, to feel the pressure outside the three-point line. The only way they’re going to get better is to play against stronger teams, bigger schools and then we get an opportunity to work on the things we need to work on.”
The Bulldogs, who are ranked No. 1 for the BPSN Tournament next week, felt the same way.
“We normally would go into an early tournament but this year we weren’t allowed to do as many as we wanted,” Sir Winston coach Frank Keltos said. “We got a late start so we got in here and got three games.
“It’s a new team and a chance to gel together, work together and get some chemistry and see what we need to work on and it did exactly what I was hoping for. You want to win all the games you can but we had two really good games and a game where we had a bit of an easier path.”
The Fighting Irish went 1-2.
“We have a young team so it’s good to practice the stuff we’ve been doing ahead of some of the bigger tournaments like the BPSN,” ND coach Kristen Dean said. “Just extra games, extra practice and we saw Sir Winston which we don’t get to play in our season.”
The tournament was the brainchild of Brock women’s coach Mike Rao.
“I know the first year is kind of experimental. You never know what the lay of the land is. I just put it out there. We didn’t get beyond four. I would have liked a few more but four is good,” Rao said. “It’s been real good. The competition was real good. Sir Winston is a very good team and so is Notre Dame and BT.”
Rao feels the concept of a local tournament sponsored by Brock can only help the school recruiting local players.
“It’s a chance to see the girls up close. It’s a chance for the local girls who may want to play beyond high school, give them a chance to see if they have a chance to play post-secondary. It gives them some exposure and me some exposure and I can talk to the coaches and create some kind of relationship where it’s easy to talk to a player.”
Following are the game scores and top scorers from each game.
Thunder 57 Fighting Irish 52
Blessed Trinity Thunder: Maria DiFlavio 19; Maggie Vukojev 15; Lita Sutor 14.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish: Lila DiPietro 18; Ava Briggs 9; Nicole Dixon 7.
Bulldogs 51 Fighting Irish 48
Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs: Norah Hoff 13; Anya Namestnik 11; Kate Smyth 9.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish: Ava Briggs 19; Camilla Moscato 10; Mia Colangelo 7.
Fighting Irish 60 Raiders 22
Notre Dame Fighting Irish: Lila DiPietro 14; Nicole Dixon 13; Camilla Moscato 8; Ava Briggs 8.
Holy Cross Raiders: Mairead Newhouse 10; Claire Martires 9; Leah Briscall 3.
Bulldogs 72 Raiders 23
Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs: Kate Smyth 19; Kiera Pink 11; Anya Namestnik 8; Kyra Digaetano 8.
Holy Cross Raiders: Mairead Newhouse 11; Leah Briscall 8; Claire Martires 4.
Thunder 50 Bulldogs 46
Blessed Trinity Thunder: Maggie Vukojev 18; Maria DiFlavio 13; Avery Whaling 7.
Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs: Kate Smyth 18; Anya Namestnik 15; Morgan Barker 4.
Thunder 33 Raiders 23
Blessed Trinity Thunder: Maggie Vukojev 11; Jaycen Stienstra 5; Avery Whaling 5.
Holy Cross Raiders: Mairead Newhouse 11; Leah Briscall 4; Claire Martires 4.
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