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NGBA JUEL Prep champions

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The Niagara Girls Basketball Academy (NGBA) under-15 team enjoyed a successful 2018-19 JUEL Prep season by winning the regular season championship with a 15-1 record and topping that off with a league playoff championship by going 5-0 in play last weekend.

The NGBA secured a birth in the semifinals with pool victories over Sudbury Jam (106-44), Kingston Impact (75-51) and Canada Elite (76-44). In the semifinals, the NGBA, dealing with multiple injuries, held off a determined Transway team 77-72 in overtime to advance to the championships.

Emma Koabel

In the final, First Team All-Star Emma Koabel poured in 27 points to power her team to a hard-fought, 79-71 come-from-behind victory over the Windsor Valiants.

Koabel was also named to the League’s First Team Defensive Team and Natalie Picton was selected as a Second Team League All-Star.

Members of the team, coached by Picton and Allison Mauro were, Natalie Picton, Ella Muraca, Shailah Adams, Ellycea Burke, Jayda Rodrigue, Gabriella DiPietro, Corrynn Parker, Alexis Wright, Ally Thornton, Janee Harrison and Koabel.

NGBA JUEL

The NGBA girls basketball team finished seventh in league standings with a record of 8-10.

At the league championships, the NGBA squad lost 80-39 to the eventual champion Scarborough Lady Blues, defeated Ottawa Elite 80-75 and lost 82-40 to the Tri-County Soldiers.

Members of the team were Lauren Vanecko, Taryn Mitchell, Viktoria Cubelic, Lexxus Bell, Jamira Rousseau, Chloe Peters, Avery Cushing, Megan Louws, Nadia Smith, Isabelle Sinclair, Emma Kulik, Jamie Foreman and Maya Torigian

Bernie Puchalski, a graduate of Brock University and Niagara College, worked in journalism in Niagara for more than 27 years before taking a voluntary buyout from The Standard at the end of 2016. He started his career as a news reporter for the Niagara Falls Review before switching to sports reporting. He was a sports reporter and sports editor at the Niagara Falls Review before joining the Standard's sports department in 1996. He was named the Standard's sports editor in 2000 and became the regional sports editor, in charge of the Niagara Falls Review, Welland Tribune and Standard, in 2015, a position he held until he left the company. During his time in newspapers, he was a multiple winner and finalist for numerous Ontario and Western Ontario Newspaper Awards for sports reporting, spot news reporting and humour writing. He was a member of the Standard Boys Basketball Tournament committee and co-chair of the Standard Girls Basketball Tournament, helping to raise tens of thousands of dollars for bursaries presented to participants in the tournament. He also served on countless local sports committees both in Niagara Falls and St. Catharines.

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