Sweet 16th birthday for Cavicchia
Adlai Cavicchia’s 16th birthday party spilled out on to the basketball court.
Prior to the Niagara Region High School Athletic Association Zone 4 AAA senior girls final versus visiting West Niagara, her Eden Flyers teammates sang Happy Birthday. The Grade 11 player then went out and scored 14 points to help her team record a 57-27 victory over the Wolfpack to move on to the Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association semifinals next week.
“That was definitely a great birthday gift,” she said.
Tuesday’s game was a bounce back one for Cavicchia.
“That was good game for me. I was kind of off my game last game and it was really nice to get back in it. I think I was just in my head from the start (last game).”
Cavicchia started playing basketball when she was younger and began suiting up in travel ball when she was 13. She usually plays a year up but couldn’t find a travel team in her age group this season.
Thankfully, she had Eden basketball to get her hoops fix.
“It’s very important. This is what I look forward to every year. I love the people on the court, I love the game and I just love everything about it.”
Cavicchia can score but knows her role on the squad.
“If there is a good player on the other team, I usually guard her one-on-one. I love moving around and trying to be aggressive.”
Eden head coach Jonathan Thorpe describes Cavicchia as a girl who works hard all the time.
“She works hard in practice, works hard in games and there are lots of roles I give her and she says ‘Yes’ and goes ahead and does it to the best of her abilities,” he said. “She is a great player to have on the team.”
Having a player comfortable in any role is important for the Flyers.
“When she was in junior, she was the leading scorer most of the time. It is a very different role this time because we have two other players who are scoring most of the points for us,” Thorpe said. “It is so important to have that third player who can do some of the other work and not get all the baskets.”
He likes where his team is at heading to SOSSA.
“We have won three of our last four games and even the game we lost we played very well. We are definitely heading in the direction we want to be.”
Cavicchia echoes her coach’s comments.
“I think we have a good chance. We have good ballhandlers and defence and we are good as a team.”
West Niagara head coach Holly Miller described the game as a tough loss.
“We put a lot of shots up that didn’t drop and we missed a lot in the paint. On some days, when those do drop it does change the outlook of the game but they have a very strong team. They played very well and I give full credit to my girls for not giving up. They fought from Minute 1 right to the end.”
It was an emotional end to the season for West Niagara.
“We have seven seniors on this team who are Grade 12s and lots of them were saying it was their last basketball game but I hope that’s not the case,” she said. “I hope they play intramural in university. I am sad to lose them.”
Miller is upbeat about the future of senior girls basketball at West Niagara.
“We had so many girls come out for junior this year and I’m optimistic. We have a lot of Grade 9s on the junior team and I think I have four or five Grade 10s coming up. Hopefully some new people will come try out. It may be a bit of a rebuilding year but after that’s it’s hopeful because our juniors were quite strong this year.”
STATS PACK
Flyers 57 Wolfpack 27
Cat’s Caboose Player of the Game: Eden’s Adlai Cavicchia with 14 points and a strong defensive game.
For the Eden Flyers: Shorleigh Burrows 17; Katie DeVries 15; Adlai Cavicchia 14; Adelaide Dearborn 5; Anastasia Smirnova 2; Sakura Luciow 2; Ella McMaster 2.
For the West Niagara Wolfpack: Kiera Bacchus 7; Coco Van Nynatten 7; Harper Morequeen 7; Reese Bolibruck 3; Rebekah Woodland 2; Lizzy Clausen 2.
Up next: Eden advances to SOSSA Thursday, Nov. 14 at Notre Dame.
