Nothing greater than being a Gator
The Lakeshore Catholic Gators are back on the map.
The Gators defeated the visiting Saint Francis Phoenix 39-29 to capture the Niagara Catholic Athletic Association Zone 2 senior AA girls basketball final Thursday before an enthusiastic crowd at The Swamp.
When the final buzzer sounded, fans rushed the court to congratulate the Gators who improved to a perfect 9-0 and now advance to the Southern Ontario Secondary School Athletic Association (SOSAA) playoffs next Thursday at E.L. Crossley.
Lakeshore head coach Shyian McFarland was thrilled for both his team and for the school overall.
“It means everything,” he smiled. “For a program that has stumbled for quite a few years, for a school that’s not naturally known for basketball or sports in general, this lets everybody else in the region know that Lakeshore is here and we have a very good female basketball program here and we’re just going to continue to build upon it.”
The victory was sweet revenge for the Gators who lost in the Zone 2 final to the Phoenix last season.
“And these girls worked their butts off from Day 1 and our goal was to make it here,” McFarland said “Our goal was to win it. We were here last year, we came up short against the exact same opponent. And we made sure at the beginning I told them let’s not get here two years in a row and lose to the same team two years in a row.
“These girls, they deserve it.”
The Gators built a 29-9 lead at the half, only to have the Phoenix rally and shave the lead down to four at 33-29 early in the fourth before Lakeshore recovered.
“I think what happened is we got complacent a little bit when we were able to open up the lead, and we kind of took our foot off the pedal a little bit,” McFarland said. “But once we refocused and we realized the game is not over.
“Basketball is a tale of two halves so every half you got to look at it like it’s 0-0 so if we beat them in the first half if they come out strong in the second half they can completely flip the game and get right back into it. They managed to make a good comeback. They hit a couple of open threes they were getting some good turnovers on us and we lost our focus but again once we made sure that we executed on offence and defensively we rotated the way we needed to we were able to kind of stop their little rush that they had going on.”
McFarland is thrilled to advance to SOSSA, but plans to soak in the win for the next little while.
“We’re extremely excited. Some of the girls, I believe, they haven’t been to SOSSA since their junior year,” he said. “Now that we won we’re going to enjoy this. We’re going to bask in this glory for the school, for the girls. They really deserve this. Next week we’ll get back into the lab and we’ll start working on our competition for the next week.”
Saint Francis coach Rachel Bufalino was proud of the way her squad rallied after a poor start.
“At half we told the girls this is where we turn it on and that’s what they did, they came out with a high intensity,” she said. “We said you only have 16 minutes left in the season.”
The Phoenix may have been able to complete the comeback but all of a sudden went cold from the floor.
“Obviously when shots start not sinking you get in your head and start getting a little bit disappointed,” Bufalin said. “We’re a big energy team. We need high energy whether the ball is falling or not. We told them to keep shooting the ball and then the shots started falling a little bit, but came up a little too short.”
Bufalino was pleased with the season which saw the Phoenix take home the consolation title at the BPSN Tournament last month.
“Overall, very happy. Like I said from the beginning of the season, all I want is positivity throughout to the end. They brought positivity. There were times when we got a little bit down on ourselves but overall we finished together as a team.”
STATS PACK
Gators 39 Phoenix 29
Cat’s Caboose Player of the Game: Lakeshore guard Shania Hintenberger with 18 points.
Lakeshore Gators: Hintenberger 18; Addison Thornton 8; Lidia Roach 5; Bridget Peazel 4; Ava Thornton 2; Reagan Cassan 2.
Saint Francis Phoenix: Rozlyn Ciocca 13; Kylie Ryall 6; Kaylee Giesbrecht 6; Alicia Kryzanowski 4.
Up next: The Gators advance to the SOSSA AA playoffs Thursday, Nov. 14 at E.L. Crossley.
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