Flyers hold off Thunder
The Eden Flyers were pushed to the limit by the Blessed Trinity Thunder Wednesday.
The Flyers managed only four points in the opening quarter but didn’t panic and soon found their game to rally for a 38-28 win in a championship round quarter-final game at the Fourth Annual BSPN Girls Basketball Tournament.
“I think the bigger issue was that we had to get on to the game plan first,” Eden coach Jonathan Thorpe said. “The first five, six minutes, we did not look like the team we looked like the last two games. We took a time out and had some positive encouragement and eventually we got to where we were supposed to look like.”
Thorpe tipped his cap to the Thunder for executing a solid game plan.
“It was a defensive struggle to begin the game for sure,” he said.
The Flyers finally began to solve the Thunder, thanks in large part to guard Katie DeVries. who netted seven of her game-high 17 in the second quarter.
“It took a lot of adjusting, I’m not going to lie,” DeVries said. “They were really tight on us, but once we started moving more off the ball, I thought we handled it pretty well.”
DeVries didn’t sense any panic despite the cold start of offence.
“We know our team, we know our practises and we know our plays. Honestly, it’s just having trust in our teammates. We know what we’re going to do and we did it.”
Thorpe was impressed how DeVries handled the situation.
“Extremely composed,” Thorpe said. “I just talked to her about her on-court leadership as well during this game, particularly at the beginning of the game where not everybody was doing what they were supposed to be doing. She was out there directing traffic so she brings that kind of level of composure and maturity that is, you know, a little bit surprising maybe in a Grade 11 kid.”
The Flyers now advance to the semifinals versus the defending champion Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs.
“We are super excited,” DeVries said. “I think we just have to keep doing what we’re doing. Our defence is where it’s at, and we have to keep having trust our teammates, believing that we can do it, and then I think we got it.”
BT coach Gabe Diadamo loved his club’s effort on defence.
“Defence is always the game plan, it’s always a big deal,” he said. “It’s something we worked on a lot, so we were actually really proud of the way the girls played defence tonight.”
Diadamo couldn’t help but wonder if the outcome would have been different had his club been able to hit a few more shots.
“That was our worst shooting game of the season,” he said. “You just have to keep trying.”
He appreciated being able to take on a strong Eden squad.
“These are good, quality teams that we’re playing that we don’t get to see in our regular season,” Diadamo said. “It’s nice to see these guys and get these good games in because we do have good teams like Saint Francis and in Notre Dame that we’re going have to face later on.”
STATS PACK
Flyers 38 Thunder 27
Cat’s Caboose Player of the Game: Eden’s Katie DeVries with 17 points.
Eden Flyers: Kate DeVries 17; Shorleigh Burrows 11; Adlai Cavicchia 5; Hannah McGugan 2; Adelaide Dearborn 2.
Blessed Trinity Thunder: Lisa Sutor 14; Brooklyn Turner 9; Jaylen Steinstra 3; Maria DiFlavio 2.
Up next: Eden advances to the championship semifinals at Ridley College Thursday at 7:30 p.m. versus Sir Winston Churchill.
Livestream: Visit hudl.com and search Ridley College to watch Thursday’s semifinals.
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.
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