Niagara Juel drops pair
The Niagara Juel girls basketball squad had a winless weekend in Waterloo, falling 69-65 to Windsor-St. Clair and 72-37 to London.
Against Windsor-St. Clair, Niagara built quarter leads of 13-9, 37-21 and 52-44 only to get outscored 25-13 in the final quarter.
It was a game Niagara head coach Si Khounviseth felt his squad should have won.
“They are a good team and we led the whole game and then the second half we did not defend two kids well as you can see from their stats,” he said.
Niagara was missing one of its starters, Reese Bolibruck, who was at Team Ontario tryouts.
“It is us as a team learning to win and I take the loss on that one as I need to have them better prepared to win. Very tough loss as they are a top five team in the league and we needed to win that game. Turnovers continue to plague us and it is something we continuing to try and work on and figure out how to get better and eliminate them,” Khounviseth said. “The signs are pointing in the right direction as we were under 30 turnovers against a top team. We see progress.”
Leading the way for Niagara against Windsor-St. Clair were: Alena Tepsic (Saltfleet) with 20 points and five rebounds; Emma Vendittelli (A.N. Myer) with 17 points; Keira Teske (Governor Simcoe) with 10 points and five boards; and, Amelia Siolkowsky (E.L. Crossley) with seven points and six rebounds.
Niagara lost its second game 72-37 to London. No gamesheet was available.
Khounviseth wasn’t able to be at the game against the second-ranked Ramblers.
“By all accounts from my assistant coaches, it was a poor performance from the whole team and they did not respond well to the challenge. It was very disappointing and we will assess it as team. We need to be better with our focus and effort no matter who is on the bench,” he said. “The assistants summed it up best as they only pointed out one player who showed up to compete and give effort. We are at the stage of the season where we have enough as coaches that we will make the adjustments necessary as we get ready for the year-end tournament. It is on the players to earn their spots in the rotation at this time of the year.”
