Big Game Addie sparks Cyclone
When the lights are brightest and the game is on the line, E.L. Crossley’s Addie Falardeau wants the ball in her hands.
“She is a workhorse and she is one of those players that wants to be on the court, does not want to come off and she wants to have the pressure of having to perform,” Crossley head coach Aaron Belding said Thursday night, moments after his team had knocked off the top seeded and previously unbeaten Notre Dame Fighting Irish 32-26 in the championship semifinals of the Fourth Annual BPSN Girls Basketball Tournament played at Ridley College.
“A great example of that was when she put us up by six. With nine seconds left on the shot clock, she drives to the net and put the basket it. That’s what she is wanting for herself and when she delivers it is sweet.”
The basket gave Crossley a 30-23 lead with 1:59 left in the game and she would score again with 31.3 seconds remaining to give the Cyclone an insurmountable 32-23 lead.
“Sometimes I feel that I want to get the ball and really help my team score and get those points up on the board to put us up,” the Grade 11 student said. “I also like doing it on defence too because I feel that that is a huge part of our game. It’s not only having the ball on offence but getting it back on defence so we can get in transition and score points.”
The 16-year-old Fonthill resident has always had that desire to be a difference maker when the game is on the line.
“I am really competitive and I want to win all the time. My main focus is defence. That is very big for me and hopefully I can help on offence too.”
The 5-foot-9 athlete played travel ball with the Niagara Girls Basketball Academy before quitting three years ago to focus on soccer. She suits up in soccer for Hamilton OPDL.
Thursday’s win over Notre Dame was a war.
“It was a battle. It was ugly at times but when we slowed the ball down and ran the offence and had the composure everything looked like we were in control,” Belding said “It was when we allowed the press from Notre Dame to put pressure on us and make us go helter skelter that we passed the ball away, turned it over and didn’t play the way we needed to play.”
Nowhere was that more evident than a stretch during the final four minutes of the game where the teams combined to make nine turnovers and score zero points in three minutes of playing time.
Belding chalked that up to fatigue.
“It is really the first big tournament of the season and we haven’t played enough league games to have the stamina. Now all of a sudden we are in tournament where this is our third game in three days and some of our starters have played a lot of minutes. The fatigue came out and the mistakes came out. We have to work on cutting those mental mistakes down and get the conditioning up.”
The Cyclone will play in their first BPSN final Friday night.
“We are ecstatic and the girls are ecstatic. We are excited to be here,” Belding said.
It would be the first big tournament win for the Cyclone since capturing the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations AA consolation title in 2023.
“It’s what you work for. You go into tournaments because you want to make the championship game. I don’t know any coaches who want to go into tournaments and go two and out,” Belding said, “Making it and having the girls improve the way they improved has been fantastic.”
The Cyclone returned four players from that OFSAA consolation championship squad and the program is hoping to get back there and do some damage.
“That is the goal,” Belding said, adding it’s possible if the team puts in the work. “Again I go back to that consistency statement I put down as our weakness. When the girls minds are in the game or we’re playing the game plan we outlined, we are very good. When we aren’t playing that game plan, we are very inconsistent and you even saw spurts of that in this game where we turned the ball over and we weren’t sure what we were supposed to being doing. In good games against good teams, they take advantage of that and we can go from up six to down six.”
Falardeau would love to make some noise at OFSAA.
“Last year was very fun and competitive but I feel that this year we have a great group of girls and we can go and push ourselves more. That’s huge for us because even in this tournament I don’t think we have made the championship,” she said.
“It (BPSN tourney) is a huge milestone because we haven’t been here. We are all just super excited to be here and we are going to bring a lot of passion, We are going to go in hard, fight and see how far we can get. I believe that this group of girls is the one that can do it.”
Notre Dame head coach Loris Lucchetta tipped his hat to Crossley and Notre Dame.
“Both teams played really hard and I thought we both played really well,” he said. “I liked how hard we worked to try and come back from being down. We showed good energy on defence and trying to come back in the game. They held strong and stayed positive when they were down.”
A 12-0 run for Crossley to start the second quarter was the game’s BPSN Turning Point.
“That was a big run for them and but we were able to come back from that a little bit,” Lucchetta said.
STATS PACK
Cyclone 32 Irish 26
Cat’s Caboose Player of the Game: Crossley’s Addie Falardeau with 10 points and a strong defensive game.
For the E.L. Crossley Cyclone: Amelia Siolkowsky 12; Falardeau 10; Kadie Luciani 4; Leah Waselovich 2; Claire Piekny 2; Helena Siolkowsky 2.
For the Notre Dame Fighting Irish: Ava DeChellis 12; Lila DiPietro 9; Ava Briggs 4; Kyra Digaetano 1.
Up next: Crossley meets Sir Winston Churchill in the championship game Friday at 7:30 p.m. at St. Catharines Collegiate.
Admission: Admission for Friday’s games is $3 for adults and $2 for students. All profits from the tournament are used to provide bursaries to tournament players.
The tournament is made possible with the help of Women Networking in Sports of Niagara, Tora Inc., Ridley College, Alltech Automotive, St. Catharines CYO Basketball, Pelham Panthers basketball, Niagara Falls Red Raiders basketball, the Niagara District Referees Association, the District School Board of Niagara and the Niagara Catholic District School Board.
