Cubelic finishing strong for Phoenix
St. Francis’ Viktoria Cubelic drives to the net Wednesday in a game against the visiting Holy Cross Raiders.
St. Francis basketball player Viktoria Cubelic is well aware that her high school basketball career is rapidly approaching its conclusion.
“I don’t know where the zone game (Zone 4 AA final) will be, but if it’s at the public board, this is the last home game for the season,” the 17-year-old said Tuesday, after scoring 16 points to lead the Phoenix to a 42-28 victory over the visiting Holy Cross Raiders in a game to determine which Niagara Catholic Athletic Association team will play in the zone final. “It’s kind of sad, but it’s exciting.”
Cubelic is a much different player now than when she started at St. Francis.
“In Grade 9, I was mostly a post player because I had a huge size difference over everybody,” she said. “As I moved through high school, some of the other girls grew taller so I became more like a guard and able to handle the ball more.
“And I had more opportunities to handle the ball.”
She has been a key piece of the St. Francis senior team for the past two seasons after missing her Grade 10 year recovering from an injury.
“She is definitely one of the premier players in the region and deserves the spotlight even though she is quite humble and probably doesn’t want it,” St. Francis head coach Jon Marcheterre said. “She’s an all-around player and a leader for these girls and we wouldn’t be where we are without her and if she hadn’t done what she has done for us this year.”
With St Francis losing several key players to graduation at the end of last season, Cubelic became even more important.
“Viktoria has been able to step in and assert herself a little bit more but, that being said, she is a very unselfish player who looks to create and find her open teammates when she is attacking the basket,” Marcheterre said
She takes pride in her passing.
“As high school has gone on, I have gotten better at distributing the ball,” she said. “I still make some bad decisions, but my decision making has gotten better.”
The Welland JUEL player had the abilities to play at the post-secondary level, but hoops is her second priority in choosing where she will go to university.
“I’ve been looking, but it’s all about the program first for me and I guess I will have to see where I get in.”
She wants to study health sciences or medical sciences and with a 98 per cent average Cubelic should have her pick of schools.
She wants to continue working on her game during the JUEL season to enhance her chances of playing ball in university.
“I have to get stronger and faster — the physical stuff — because I am an under-sized big and I am one of the biggest people on my team when we get to the JUEL season,” she said. “I am going to have to get stronger to play with the post players and I have to get faster to have a nice matchup outside.”
Despite having only six players, the Raiders gave the Phoenix a nice matchup and kept the game within single digits until one player was injured and another fouled out leaving only four players on the floor to finish the game.
“We changed our defence and decided to go with a two-three zone,” Holy Cross coach Erin Gauthier said. “We hadn’t played a two-three zone all the year, but their bigs killed us the first time we played them.
“We thought we would pack it in and we did a really good job playing a two-three zone.”
Gauthier was pleased with her team’s performance.
“They did everything I asked them to do. They brought the ball up well through pressure and the pressure wasn’t really effective on us,” she said. “They looked to hit the open person and they swung the ball really well from one side to the other, but the ball just didn’t go in for us today.”
Holy Cross tied for sixth with a 2-5 mark in league play before losing to St. Francis Wednesday.
“I couldn’t ask for more dedication from these girls, on the court, off the court and in the classroom,” Gauthier said. “Especially with a short bench, it made it a long season.”
The Phoenix were impressed with the Raiders’ tenacity.
“They gave us everything they had and you have to respect that,” Marcheterre said. “I tip my cap to them for playing through injuries and some illnesses.”
For the Phoenix, it was a matter of getting some shots to fall Wednesday.
“We had a lot of great looks and second and third chances, and we couldn’t get our shots to drop from beyond the arc,” he said. “We also did a lot of things we were quite happy with; controlling the pace, defence and stuff like that.”
The Phoenix will now face the winner of the Niagara Region High School Athletic Association final between the Eden Flyers and Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs. That game goes Thursday at 4:30 at Eden with the winner playing St. Francis Monday to decide who is the Zone 4 AA rep in the Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association semifinals.
“We know we will be in tough with either opponent,” Marcheterre said. “We played Churchill already this year and we were able to hang with them right to the wire at the Standard (tournament).
“I feel like we have improved throughout the year and we are ready and we are prepared.”
STATS PACK
Phoenix 42 Raiders 28
Mick and Angelo’s/Johnny Rocco’s Player of the Game: St. Francis’ Viktoria Cubelic with a game-high 16 points and many rebounds and assists.
For the St. Francis Phoenix: Cubelic 16; Hannah Schipper 14; Rachel Bufalino 8; Teagen Orth 4.
For the Holy Cross Raiders: Sarah O’Rourke 12; Maddie Caughill 8; Ally Dyck 5; Paige Macoretta 5.
