Sutor leads BT past Crossley
Blessed Trinity senior girls basketball head coach Gabe Diadamo has seen the light when it comes to Grade 10 player Lita Sutor.
“She is like the light switch,” he said Tuesday, moments after Sutor scored 16 points to lead the Thunder to a physical 35-28 victory over the E.L. Crossley Cyclone in opening-round action of the Third Annual BPSN Girls Basketball Tournament at Holy Cross. “If anybody comes to see her play, she’s just a natural basketball player. She brings speed, aggressiveness, intelligence and good decision making. There’s not much that she doesn’t bring for us.”
This is Sutor’s first year playing basketball for the Thunder. The Fort Erie International Academy junior player didn’t play last year because her previous prep coach didn’t want her to play at the high school level.
The 15-year-old is having a blast playing with her classmates.
“I really like it because I get to play with people who don’t play that much. It is more fun,” she said. “I really missed it the opportunity but now I get to play.”
The light switch knows she plays an important role for the Thunder.
“I am always working hard and being fast,” said the participant in the Nike Regional Girls Futures Game.
She is planning to play for the Fort Erie International Academy’s Ontario Scholastic Basketball Association team next season.
“I am hoping to play all through high school and see where I can go after that.”
She is working hard in her journey.
“I need to work more on my shooting.”
The Cyclone struggled to score all game but their defence kept them in it until the very end. E.L. Crossley grabbed its first lead of the early in the fourth quarter but the Thunder reeled off eight straight points to put the game out of reach.
“I stopped counting,” Cyclone head coach Aaron Belding said, when asked how many easy buckets and layups his team missed. “It was our first game of the season started. The DSBN (District School Board of Niagara) league started but our first game is on the 10th. It was definitely our first game but coming out in the second quarter we actually started to put baskets in and that is what we were expecting.”
The lack of game play hurt the Cyclone.
“You could tell the fatigue and whatnot because our girls are used to practice and not game speed and that tuckered us out in the fourth quarter,” he said. “We will be better.”
The game was a physical and scrappy affair.
“I am still new to girls basketball but I find it more and more aggressive,” Diadamo said. “The girls play hard and if there’s fouls, there’s fouls.”
He described his team’s performance as up and down.
“We battled back when they were coming close and we managed to get buckets at the right time. We just have to work on our turnovers and taking care of the ball. That’s the most important thing.”
STATS PACK
Thunder 35 Cyclone 28
Cat’s Caboose Player of the Game: Blessed Trinity’s Lita Sutor with 16 points.
For the Blessed Trinity Thunder: Sutor 16; ; Maria DiFlavio 6; Avery Whaling 6; Nadia Talukdar 5; Alana Meester 5; Raffiella DiMarcantonio 2.
For the E.L. Crossley Cyclone: Leah Waselovich 13; Sara Lowry 4; L’Jayah Simmonds 4; Addie Falardeau 3; Amelia Silokowsky 3; Katie Luciani 1.
The tournament is made possible with the help of Women Networking in Sports of Niagara, Tora Inc., Regional Doors and Hardware, Bromac Construction Inc., the Brock women’s basketball program, Alltech Automotive, St. Catharines CYO Basketball, Pelham Panthers basketball, Niagara Falls Red Raiders basketball, Niagara Rangers basketball, Lasting Images, the Niagara District Referees Association, the District School Board of Niagara and the Niagara Catholic District School Board.
