Unbeaten Storm roll into OFSAA medal round.
Daniella Zondag continued her hot play Friday morning at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations senior girls A basketball championships at Smithville Christian High School.
The 5-foot-6 Smithville Christian Storm point guard poured in a team-high 18 points to lead her team to a 52-31 victory over the Roland Michener Rebels. Zontag has averaged 18 points per game at OFSAA to help her team go 3-0 through the first three games of the round-robin portion of the tournament.
Zondag was at it again Friday night scoring 20 points to power the Storm to a 49-24 win over E.S. Sainte-Trinite. The win gave Smithville Christian a 4-0 record in round-robin play and a berth in the medal round.
Also scoring for the Storm in the win over E.S. Sainte-Trinite were Tori Hultink (15), Jacoba Hoekstra (6), Kyra Van Geest (3), Alia Breukelman (3), Regina Mushegera (2), and Morgan Vanstaalduinen (2)..
Smithville Christian head coach Tawnia Hultink appreciates what Zondag brings to the court.
“She has long arms, she is great at getting steals and she is very good at finishing.”
The travel ball player for Grimsby Grizzlies loves suiting up for her school.
“It is a lot of fun and it is really important to me because I have a great time and I have built a lot of great friendships with the girls on the team and they are also in my classes,” the Grade 11 student said. “It is fun to play and hang out with them.”
Losing her Grade 10 year to the COVID-19 pandemic was a tough pill for the 16-year-old Grimsby resident and her teammates to swallow.
“It was really tough because this is my last year with these girls because a lot of seniors,” she said. “It really sucks that I didn’t get another year to play with them but we have this year so I am happy.”
The added bonus this year for the Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association champions was a chance to host OFSAA in their home gym.
“It is really exciting and I am really happy that it is being hosted by our school,” said Zondag, who has been playing basketball since Grade 7. “It has been a lot of fun and we also won SOSSA which was a great time.”
Smithville Christian’s play has been great at OFSAA and Zondag credits one specific factor for its success.
“This team is special because everyone is really good friends. We are from a small school and we know each other really well,” she said. “These friendships are going to last a long time.”
Hultink was happy with how her team played against Roland Michener.
“We played tough defence, they were all working well together and they had more self control.”
The top two teams from each pool advance to the semifinals. Those semifinals will be held Saturday at 9 a.m. at Smithville Christian and Grimsby Secondary School and both medals games will be played at Smithville. The bronze medal game will be at 2 p.m. and the gold medal game is scheduled for 3:30 p.m.
All game are being live streamed. The link can be found at https://www.ofsaa.on.ca/girls-basketball.
STATS PACK
Storm 52 Rebels 31
Cat’s Caboose Player of the Game: Smithville Christian’s Daniella Zontag with 18 points.
For the Smithville Christian Storm: Zondag (18), Tori Hultink (12), Kyra Van Geest (7), Alia Breukelman (5), Regina Mushegera (4), Jacoba Hoekstra (2), Morgan Vanstaalduinen (2), Brooke Gilpin (2).
For the Roland Michener Rebels: Cadence Pecore (11), Alexis Toby (9), Tiana Kingsbury (5).
