(From the Stanstead College yearbook)
Senior Girls
This past season was different. for the first time in my career, we had no ETIAC, as both Galt and BCS abandoned the league. In addition, there was no Bailly Tournament due to the public school strike. Consequently, we had to find other teams to ploy against and hope that these exhibition games would prepare us for the remaining fixtures in our schedule: the MIS, the BCS Tourney and the ultimate goal of the season - the Macleod Provincials.
The good news is we managed to augment our schedule with 13 exhibition games against 10 different schools, including seven teams that SC has never played before. More good news? No fewer than eight of those games were super-competitive, fantastic contests that not only made us better but provided us with some of the best highlights of the season:
- the 63-53 loss to Les Pantheres in St-Bruno, where we went toe-to-toe against a AAA community club team;
- that exhilarating 49-40 win in front of our home crowd against Magog's top team, LaRuche:
- and, of course, the final leg of our Montreal Basketball Tour, aka the Steel Cage Revenge Death Match against RS
- what a victory THAT was!
All in all our exhibition schedule helped us rack up 26 games in preparation for the provincials. And despite the tougher competition, our record was a respectable 11-9, including a third-place finish at (AIS (our best-ever result) and a silver medal at the MIS tournament.
Unfortunately, we fellshort at the MacLeod, losing to Heritage (the eventual champions) in the semi-finals. However, I need only look at our quarter-final vs Golt - an epic 39-31 win -to know that this season was an unmitigated success. Without all the extra games, the preparation, the adjustments, the new defences, the Kawhi press, the Spurs offences - Ginobili! -without all the little tweaks and changes, without each and every player trusting the process and buying into every new thing we tried (even when some of them didn't work), without ALL those things we don't win that type of game against that strong an opponent.
Funny thing is, this was supposed to be a 'rebuilding" year, what with seven (!) players graduating from the 2015 team, and us being so young. Yeah, whatever . I've never coached a team that learned so much so fast. Ever. And with only three players graduating this year, we have a chance to make some real noise next season. I am so looking forward to it. How long is it until CAIS 2016?
Junior Girls
This year, we had a very good season. It started with an incomplete team but was made up for with well-prepared players. Each of them gave everything they had throughout the season and it ended up being an amazing season. We lost in the finals of both the Montreal Independent Schools Tournament and the Dunn Tournament, but finished our season on a good note by winning the ETIAC playoff championship.
Bantam Girls
50 things we'll all remember about this season!
1. Hello? It's me. 2. Montreal 3. Our first' win 4. Your first basket 5. Playing games in practice 6. Laughing 7. Getting fouled out 8. Learning the rules 9. Learning the game 10. Learning how to play together 11. Learning about each other 12. Laughing 13. Jailbreak 14. Bearcrawls 15. Passing and catching 16. Bad worm-ups 17. Patience 18. Making mistakes 19. Games of 21 20. Burning it down! 21. laughing 22. Being positive 23. Playing defense 24. Layups 25. Out Loud! 26. Being in the right place 21. Worrying about the boys 28. Running the 'yellow lines' 29. The double (and triple) dribble. 30. Laughing 31. Throwing the ball backwards over your head 32. Getting that rebound! 33. Burpees 34. No phone rules! 35. Revenge 36. Selfies 37. Foul shots 38. Laughing 39. Knockout 40. Your first steal 41. Playing with the bantam boys. 42. Scoring on OUR net (eek!) 43. Getting out of breath 44. Travel! 45. Loyups 46. Laughing 47. Your potential 48. Your tenacity 49. Your courage 50. My pride.
Thanks for giving me this opportunity.
(From the Stanstead College website, November 22nd)
And We’re Off!
After 2 weeks, 8 practices, and 1 long bus ride, the Stanstead College Spartans were ready (and nervous!) for their first basketball action of the season. At the CAIS National Invitational Tournament. Some of our opponents (15 teams in all) would be in the same boat as we were, just starting their seasons, while others had been playing for over two months and knew exactly what they were doing. But that’s the way CAIS has to be (with Ontario playing ball in the fall, and everyone else playing in the winter), and while it disadvantages us, there really is no other way. (And to be honest, I still thought we had a shot – we’d looked pretty good against our junior boys ).
Round-Robin Game #1 vs Ashbury College (Ottawa, Ontario):
Opening tap, Mackenzy St.-Pierre wins it forward to Tania Tesson who rises into a silky pull-up jumper, and the 2015-16 season is under way! After that sweet start, Tania keeps it going to the tune of 10 points in the 1st quarter, and helps her team to an 18-9 lead that we would never relinquish. However, despite her torrid start, Player Of The GameTM honours have to go to Rina Takahashi. On offense she made Ashbury pay every time they overcommitted on our Spurs offense, burning them time and again with clever drives and patented scoop finishes on her way to 23(!) points. And defensively she was even better, frustrating the opposing point guard (#4, Ashbury’s best player) until she (#4) finally had enough and just gave up trying to beat her. A 54-32 win against a strong opponent in our very first game, and we were well on our way to qualifying for the Championship Draw, which is made up of the top eight teams after round-robin play.
Round-Robin Game #2 vs Appleby College (Oakville, Ontario):
Eerily enough, we started this game almost exactly the way we started the first one, except this time it was Player Of The GameTM Chloe Van Dyke who pumped in 10 points in the opening quarter, including a threeball to open the scoring right in front of the Appleby coach (a very good friend of mine who’s known Chloe her whole life) – I’ll never forget the big wink she gave him as she ran by his bench . After that it was a complete team effort offensively and defensively, on the way to a convincing 58-25 victory which featured eleven(!) different players scoring and suffocating defense by everyone wearing Red & White. My personal highlights were Misha Hubacek’s runner in the lane, Mackenzy and Kaylee Bowen combining to go 8 of 9 from the free throw line, and Susannah Wolfe and Marlie Gaudioso’s low post to high post passing. This win secured us 1st place in our division – on to the Quarterfinals!
Quarterfinals vs Rothesay Netherwood School (Rothesay, New Brunswick):
This may have been the most frustrating, hair-graying win of my coaching career, as four minutes in we had already collected seven team fouls (“bonus” starts on the 7th foul of the half) thanks to the tightest, strangest reffing I’ve ever witnessed. Any contact at all, no matter who initiated it, would result in a Stanstead defensive foul. First Tania, then Kayla, then Marie-Ange Loiselle, they all had to sit in the first quarter with foul trouble. It got so bad that the girls became too scared to even play defense or go for loose balls or ANYTHING that could possibly result in minor contact. There was absolutely no flow to the game as we racked up 19 fouls and Rothesay shot 31(!) free throws. (For comparison, RNS was whistled for 7 fouls, resulting in 6 free throws for us).
But all of that didn’t matter in the end, because Mackenzy put their best player on lock, Tania chipped in 14 points, and Player Of The GameTM Chloe had the best game of her life. How’s this for a Van Slaught? – Eight threes on the way to 28 POINTS!! What?! EIGHT THREES?!?! Itellya, in that 1st half (22 pts) it was like she Could Not Miss, it was raining threes, it was a splashfest, it was insane. And we needed every one of those bombs, as Rothesay steadily came back in the 2nd half, making it an 8-point game with 4 minutes to play. But two huge threes by Tania and Chloe and two clutch free throws by Kaylee finally iced it. 54-40 final score, and we’d earned a semifinal date with the #1-ranked team.
Semifinals vs Ridley College (St.-Catherines, Ontario)
Ridley, the host school, undefeated in their season, featured the best post player (#13) and the best overall player (#14) in the tournament. They had advanced to the semis easily, without challenge. The Spartans were underdogs. But if we shot well, we felt we had a chance because we knew we could slow down their offense, which we did once we switched to a triangle&2 defense, limiting our opponents to 16 pts combined in the 2nd and 3rd quarters.
But sadly we did not shoot well. Ridley allows nothing inside against their 2-3 zone (their shot blockers are just too good), so we had to hit from outside to have a chance, and we couldn’t. We were ice cold. So despite Player Of The GameTM Mackenzy’s masterful job on #14, despite frustrating the Tigers’ best players, despite fatiguing their entire team by constantly pushing the play, despite Tania’s 13 points on several breakaway layups, despite consistent defensive pressure, we couldn’t climb out of the 18-9 hole we dug ourselves in the 1st quarter (before we switched to the triangle&2), and we couldn’t mount a comeback against a team that held the ball for 45 seconds per possession throughout the final quarter (for the life of me I will NEVER understand playing without a shot clock). Final score 44-25. End of CAIS, and our first loss of the season.
But what a great weekend! Our best result ever at CAIS (tied for 3rd out of 15 teams), over 50 points scored in 3 of our 4 games, periods of suffocating defense, and most importantly we are much more of a team than we were 4 days ago – three nights in a hotel and 18 hours in a 21-passenger will do that for you!
Well done, ladies – let’s build on this going forward!
(From the Stanstead College website, November 24th)
De-What?! De-Fense!!
This past Wednesday your Stanstead Spartans had their first home game of the season, hosting the Massey-Vanier Vikings at the Mackay Gymnasium. We knew we had to make the most of this one because, due to factors beyond our control, we only have TWO HOME GAMES scheduled so far for the entire year . So the girls were pumped…
…and came out flying defensively! The Vikings have one truly elite player (#10) who is lightning fast and can score from anywhere, so we devoted ourselves to making her life difficult. And boy oh boy, did we ever. Rina Takahashi, Tania Tesson, Kayla Ouellet, and Mackenzy St.-Pierre all took turns hounding her full-court, so much so that I can’t really blame #10 for getting frustrated – goodness knows I would have been frustrated if it had been me! All those fresh bodies being thrown at me for every second I was on the floor? Very, very tough.
So it wasn’t surprising that after three quarters #10 had as many fouls as points – three, including a technical. At that point the scoreboard read 38-11 for the Red & White, and we coasted to a 44-20 victory from there. Offensively nine different players scored, led by Tania’s 11 pts and Chloe’s 9 pts, but the story of the game was definitely the constant defensive pressure applied by every single Spartan. We pushed MVR into playing faster than they wanted to – a frenetic, chaotic pace that forced them into quick decisions and made them react to us. Watching as coaches, it wasn’t always pretty, but it was exactly the high-energy atmosphere that we wanted to create, and kudos to the players for making it happen.
Next up, a trip to the U.S. next Wednesday to go up against a New Hampshire squad that we have never, ever played. Four practices until then – let’s make good use of them!
(From the Stanstead College website)
Basketball 101
With the public school strike and the dissolution of the ETIAC, your Stanstead College Spartans were eager for games and willing to play anyone. Even a slate of AAA teams at this past weekend’s tournament in St.-Bruno. I’m not gonna lie to you; I was nervous. AAA is as good as it gets in Quebec high school basketball.
And I was right to be nervous. It took exactly 10 minutes in our first game against Les Riverains to realize we’d never faced anyone like this. Their speed, their talent, but most importantly their toughness was completely new to us. At this level, everything is contested 100%. EVERYTHING. Every pass, every dribble, every shot, every loose ball, and every rebound is a fight to the death. Nothing, and I mean nothing, comes easy. We’d never seen basketball played like this, and we were simply not ready for it. So after 10 straight minutes of being out-toughed and losing every battle (the quarters in this tourney were 10 min instead of 8 min), the scoreboard read, and this is not a misprint, 22-3. Completely non-competitive. Utter annihilation. A laugher.
Gut-check time. For the first time this season, gut-check time. How would the girls react? We had 3 full games of this level of competition to get through this weekend. Were we going to lose 88-12 to everyone? Embarrass ourselves? Prove to our opponents and their legions of cheering parents and fans that Stanstead doesn’t belong here?
Hell to the no. The players walked out onto that court, dug their heels in, and played the toughest basketball of their lives. In a display that made me as proud of this team as I’ve ever been, we lost a tight 2nd quarter by a score of 13-10. Tania sparked the offense (9 pts in the half), but more importantly every single player played the hardest defense they could. The Spartans had arrived.
And the 3rd quarter was even better. Tania (Player Of The GameTM #1), Rina (Player Of The GameTM #2), Mackenzy and Kaylee poured in 22(!) points, the defense continued fighting tooth-and-nail, and when the dust cleared your Spartans, after being blitzed 22-3 in the 1st quarter, outscored a AAA community team 22-14 in a sublime quarter of basketball. Les Riverains and their fans were no longer grinning and high-fiving. This scrappy little unknown team from the Eastern Townships was here to play.
And even though we ran out of gas in the 4th, losing the quarter 13-7 (due partly to taking risks trying to full-court press late), the players felt good afterwards. They had played one of the best teams in Quebec to a draw for the last three quarters, when they could have EASILY given up after the horror show that was the 1st quarter. Final score 62-49, but they had learned a valuable lesson.
So the players took this lesson they’d learned, applied it to their next game against Les Pantheres, and proceeded to have the best game (so far) of 2015-2016! Four tough, high-level, never-give-up quarters. Chloe responded to a rough first game with a solid outing (10 pts), Rina was a defensive demon, Mackenzy broke out with a 17 pt performance that looks to me like she’s turned the corner and now believes in herself offensively, and Player Of The GameTM Tania (18 pts) was simply the best player on the floor with her sweet jumpers and fast break finishes. (In fact, Tania was so impressive that she could be seen talking with a CEGEP coach after the game!).
Down 36-22 at halftime, the Red & White once again came out blazing in the 3rd quarter, hanging 21 points on our opponents. This should have been enough to really make the game tight, but their 3rd best player, the one we wanted taking the shots as we took away their top two snipers, killed us with jumpers to keep them in it. We still won the quarter 21-17, but we needed some magic in the 4th to pull out the win. And despite a good desperate comeback bid, we couldn’t close the gap, as we tied the 4th quarter 10-10, resulting in a respectable 63-53 loss. Seriously, what a game. The gym was jumping, the atmosphere was great, and every single player was 100% invested against a really good team. You can’t ask for more. Except maybe for some defensive rebounding, as we got KILLED on the boards. In fact, that’s what really cost us the game. Oh well, we know what to work on next practice.
As for the third and final game, I still have nightmares about it. After playing 7 out of 8 fantastic quarters, we completely fell apart. We lost the 1st quarter 18-2. We refocused and won the 2nd quarter 11-4 with phenomenal defense, but the entire 2nd half was, and I am being as honest as I can be, the worst basketball experience of my coaching career. No energy. No Chloe (out with an ankle sprain). No outside shooting. No confidence. No belief. And nowhere to hide. We were outscored 38-3 in the 2nd half. 38. To. 3. It was Friday The 13th. It was Hallowe’en. It was Saw 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. It just wouldn’t end. And if not for Rina (who never gives up) and Player Of The GameTM Mackenzy, it could have been even worse.
If losses teach you more than wins, this 60-16 demolition just earned us a PhD.
But in the end, our St.-Bruno road trip against the best teams in the region ended with 8 strong, competitive quarters out of 12. Not bad, folks. Now we know how well we can play, we know how poorly we can play, and we know what to improve upon. No, not bad at all.
(From the Stanstead College website)
MIT Tournament
FRIDAY
Game #1 vs Sacred Heart…our first action since the St. Bruno Tournament over a month ago. We’d put in a few new things in practice since then, and we tried one of them out right away – a full court press. Rina and Kaylee attacked the Saints’ ballhandlers up front, Mackenzy and Chloe brought the doubleteams, and Tania went for steals. Did it work? Well, the girls were eager to play, the energy was high, and when the dust cleared after 15 frantic, fun minutes it was 17-0 and the game was essentially over. So I’d say yeah, it worked . My two favourite plays were both inside-out assists from Kenz. The first one a classic kickout from the high post to a wide open Chloe on the wing, who drains the three. And the 2nd even prettier – Rina to Tania to Chloe across the top of the zone, Chloe to Kenz in the low post, Kenz with a baseline post move and a last-second baseline pass to Mya on the weak side, who nails the open jumper. Bee-yoo-tiful! 34-13 final score, with Chloe and Player Of The GameTM Tania Tesson providing the offensive spark (8 and 10 pts respectively), 5 other players scoring, and everyone contributing defensively. All in all, a good way to kick off the tourney.
Game #2 vs West Island College…not a great first half offensively. Hesitant and slow. Good thing our press produced some easy points on the way to an 18-5 lead. The 2nd half was much better, as Mya ran the offense well and we started getting good looks more consistently, especially the Play Of The GameTM when Mya hit Chloe with a poi-fect backdoor pass for an easy deuce. However, the story of this one was defense. Everyone was locked in against a scrappy WIC team, especially Player Of The GameTM Rina Takahashi who hounded their all-star point guard #11 the entire game and held her scoreless. Zero points! Mackenzy and Chloe led the way with 7 pts apiece on the way to the comfortable 33-11 win, and this victory meant that the Red & White had secured a spot in the Championship Division the next day – well done!
SATURDAY
Game #3 vs E.C.S….now on to the hard part. The Beavers are always tough to play against, always well-coached and in-your-face from opening whistle to final horn. But despite knowing this, we weren’t ready. We came out slow. Soft. A step behind and 2nd to every loose ball, like we hadn’t gotten off the bus. Down 7-0 before we knew it, and we had to burn our first time-out. Didn’t help, as we continued to get out-toughed, especially on the glass. In fact, defensive rebounding was the biggest reason we were losing 22-4 with 10 minutes left in the game. Shoulders were slumping, the coaches were scrambling, and it looked for all the world like we were going to just limp weakly to the game’s inevitable conclusion. But that’s when the comeback starts, led by Mya, Kaylee, Kayla and Player Of The GameTM Chloe Van Dyke. Desperate for a spark, we try 4-out 1-in against ECS’s 3-2 zone, using Kayla in the key to collapse the defense. Combined with full-court man pressure, the Spartans slowly bring it back. A free throw by Kaylee, back to back triples by Chloe, two Mya free throws and some spirited defense, and all of a sudden the scoreboard reads 26-13. The Spartans are feeling it now, the Beavers are tensing up, and the energy in the gym is palpable. Mya hits a jumper. Then another one. 26-17. Chloe in transition now, makes the contested layup and gets fouled. And one! She makes the foul shot, and it’s 26-20. 2 minutes left. But that’s as close as we would come, as despite good late-game execution, featuring smart fouling and a critical steal by Chloe on an inbounds pass, we couldn’t make any more shots. The game ended 28-20, but despite our championship hopes being dashed, I was very pleased with the 2nd half. With our backs up against the wall vs a strong opponent, we answered the bell.
Game #4 vs B.C.S….we had yet to play our nemesis this season, and I was looking forward to it, as Bishop’s featured a very good post player (#4) and a big, talented point guard (#10). I guess the girls were looking forward to it as well, as they came out and played their best half of the tournament. Rina shut down #10 (2 pts), Kaylee put #4 on lock (0 pts!), we got out on the fast break for the first time in the tournament, and most impressively we couldn’t miss from outside against the BCS zone. Mya was hitting, Chloe was hitting, and Player Of The GameTM Tania Tesson was in The Zone, raining in jump shots from all over the place for 14 1st half points. Nothing makes Tania smile like swishing a jumper, and trust me, she was grinning like a Cheshire Cat that whole half. Other highlights of this 30-13 win included Chloe’s Block Party (5 blocked shots!) and first-ever successful euro-step, and Susannah dribbling up the sideline like a runaway, unstoppable train. Itellya, don’t get in Zannah’s way when she’s dribbling…
Game #5 vs Villa Maria…unfortunately for Villa, their two best players had to leave before this game, making this final game much less competitive than it would have been. We pressed for the first 10 minutes to go up 14-2, and from that point on we worked on our zone offense. And boy oh boy, did we ever improve over the course of the game. The perimeter passing became crisp, we went inside-out almost every time, and the post-to-post passing (Sadie-Susannah and Mackenzy-Kaylee) was just a thing of beauty. I lost count of how many possessions had each player touching the ball before a score, but my favourite was definitely this Play Of The GameTM – Rina to Chloe to Tania to Rina to Tania to Chloe to Kaylee to Kenz back to Kaylee for a gimme layup. How sweet is that?! Congratulations to all the players for the convincing 43-7 win, and special kudos to Player Of The GameTM Kaylee Bowen (14 pts) for her best game of the season.
Ultimately, our 4-1 record was good enough for Silver Medals at this 12-team tournament, which is pretty solid, but I’m not gonna lie to you, I want to play E.C.S. again at the BCS Invitational in two weeks.
I want another shot. And I don’t think I’m the only one.
(From the Stanstead College website, January 12th)
Massey Vanier 2.0
Due to the dissolution of the ETIAC, we are scheduled to play four exhibition games against Massey Vanier this season, as a way for both teams to get some games. This past Tuesday we played the 2nd of these, but unlike the first one 5 weeks ago, this one would be on the Vikings’ home floor. We would also be as shorthanded as we’ve been all season, with both Marie-Ange and Rachelle unable to make the trip.
We started off with some pretty hot shooting. Chloe scored the first six points of the game with a three and an And-1, followed by Tania nailing a triple and then another jumper to make it 11-1 after six minutes of play. But despite the pretty baskets, we were getting out-worked and out-muscled by our opponents. They were the ones making the hustle plays, and when Massey closed the gap to 13-6 to end the 1st quarter, I knew we had to toughen up.
And we did, led by Susannah, Mya and Kayla coming off the bench with some attitude. From that point on we played an almost flawless 2nd quarter, outscoring MVR 17-7 and making them earn every point and every rebound. Offensively Chloe and Tania continued hitting from outside, and defensively we allowed very few good looks.
In the 2nd half the Vikings switched to a man defense (our outside shooting had compromised their zone), and nothing made me prouder than how smoothly we dealt with it. Highlights included hi-post Susannah hitting lo-post Kenz for the pretty deuce, Kaylee with the uncontested layup on the downcut, and Rina with two consecutive lobs to Kenz over the hi-post denial defense. Seeing the different ways we were able to score in this game was a joy. It doesn’t always work that well, but at the very least we know that it CAN work.
A 12-0 run to start the 4th quarter sealed the game, which finished 50-21 for the Red & White. Three separate players had 12 pts (Tania, Chloe and Kenz), seven different girls scored, quite a few players boxed out better than they had all season, and everyone contributed to a stellar defensive effort that frustrated Massey and allowed only 8 pts in the entire 2nd half. We’ve still got a huge list of things to work on in practice (not the least of which is our press and our fast break), but all in all it was a good game – there were a lot of smiles at McDonald’s afterwards, and deservedly so .
(From the Stanstead College website, January 15th)
Setting Goals
So that’s what basketball can look like.
When everyone is on the exact same page all the time. When you don’t turn the ball over, when you move your feet on defense and never reach, when you communicate.
When perimeter players dribble with confidence and attack with purpose, and post players possess an array of moves inside.
When a steady diet of high-level competition hones your performance to a keen edge, where you’ve seen it all before, when the game slows down for you.
This past Friday that’s what Vermont Academy showed us. Man, were they good. A well-oiled machine. Splendidly coached, and superbly disciplined.
They waxed us pretty good. We didn’t roll over, and outside of 10 fast break points we made them earn every inch, but the scoreboard still read 69-29 when the final whistle blew.
But on the bus ride back home it occurred to me – the last time we got shellacked like this we promptly came home and improved our zone offense. As has been the case ever since James Naismith nailed his peach basket up on a pole, you learn more from losing than you do from winning.
Going forward we are going to try to copy Vermont Academy as much as we can. Their speed of play. Their fundamentals. Their poise. Despite the blowout nature of the loss, I am happy that it happened. And so is the team, who to a player said they appreciated this game much more than if we’d blown out another team by 30 pts.
And that’s another thing that makes me happy. These Spartans want to improve. These Spartans want more games like this. These Spartans respect Vermont Academy and are not too proud to admit to wanting to emulate them.
Deal. Let’s get to work.
(From the Stanstead College website, February 2nd)
Great Game in Cowansville
Now THAT was fun!
Yesterday’s tilt against Massey was what high school sports is all about. A super-competitive game against a formidable opponent (the Vikings were finally at full strength, with their Big Three - #10, #15 and #9 – all healthy for the first time this season), with ebbs and flows, runs by both teams, and exciting performances from a bunch of players.
As has happened too often this year, the Spartans started slowly, although this time it was in large part due to playing a brand new defense we’d never tried before. We were tentative and unsure, the reffing seemed against us, and when Chloe picked up her 2nd foul only 2 minutes in, we became even more out of sorts. We missed assignments on defense which allowed open looks, we couldn’t hold onto the ball on offense, we panicked against their press, and when the dust cleared we were down 20-7 midway through the 2nd quarter. In a hostile environment, no less.
But despite some doubts – “Sir, can we switch defenses please?” – we stuck with it, and the girls started figuring things out. Tania started harassing their guards and forcing them to lob passes over the top. Kaylee completely denied their high post player. Rina ran the show. And Mackenzy and Chloe started trapping effectively and deflecting passes. On top of this, the press started working better than it had all year, with us suddenly stealing balls all over the place. Massey was getting frustrated as we cut into their lead with fast breaks caused by our defense, closed on a 7-0 run, and made it a respectable 20-14 deficit at halftime.
The momentum was ours, and we rode it to another 7-0 run to start the 2nd half, leading to a 24-point 3rd quarter! This offensive explosion was led by Players Of The GameTM Chloe Van Dyke and Mackenzy St.-Pierre, who simply took over. A steal and a euro-step from Chloe…a perfect high post move from Kenz…two more euros from Chloe, drawing blocking calls and made free throws and sending #10 to the bench with foul trouble…Chloe to Kenz on a perfect pick n roll…Kenz with a steal and a fast break basket, then another steal and a fast break assist to Rina…Chloe splashing a three when the Vikings switched to a zone, then splashing another one…Itellya, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen the two of them play so well defensively and offensively at the same time, but I hope it happens more often! Wow!
But despite Machloe’s (see what I did there? ) combined 17 3rd-quarter points, Massey wouldn’t go away. They figured out how to break our press and ended the quarter on a 6-2 run, making it only 38-34 for us going into the 4th. But the defense stood strong, especially Mya, Marie-Ange, Sadie and Kayla, who held MVR to two points for the first 4 minutes of the quarter. This essentially iced the game, and when the final whistle blew the Spartans had earned a hard-fought, thoroughly enjoyable 48-40 victory.
We learned a lot this game, ladies. We became a better team. Let’s try to use this tomorrow, when we play (only) our 2nd home game against one of the best teams in Magog – LaRuche.
I can’t wait!
(From the Stanstead College website, February 3rd)
I wasn’t sure what title to give to this writeup. “Home Sweet Home?”… “Home Is Where the Heart Is?” … “There’s No Place Like Home?”…
Because in only their 2nd home game of the entire season, your favourite Spartans warmed up better than they usually do, started better than they usually do, matched the intensity of a hardworking, in-your-face LaRuche team, and put on one of the best shows the Mackay Gymnasium has ever seen (okay, Mackay is only a few years old, but still ).
And playing at home had a lot to do with it. It’s different when your friends and your teachers and your parents and the senior boys are whooping it up after every good play. It’s different, and when the competition’s strong and the fans are classy, it’s one of the best feelings in sports.
But don’t just take my word for it.
Ask the starting five, who were maniacs on defense in the 1st quarter. They contested everything. They disrupted, deflected and intercepted everything (proof? every single starter finished with at least 3 steals). I’d never seen us play defense like that, and LaRuche spent the first 8 minutes completely flustered. When the dust cleared we had allowed a mere 5 points to one of the best AA teams in Magog.
Ask Tania Tesson, who was ON FIRE from outside (a game-high 17 pts), knocking down jumpers like it was nobody’s business. When Tania hits a couple early and starts smiling, you better look out. That smile may look like an 8-year old at Christmas, but it’s deadly if you’re the other team.
Ask Kaylee Bowen, who was great in transition (three 1st-quarter buckets off the fast break) and even better anchoring the middle of the zone. It’s easy to miss if you’re not looking for it, but basically, when Kaylee was on the floor, LaRuche got nothing inside. So smart. So tough.
Ask Player Of The GameTM and Athlete of the Week Rina Takahashi, who had her best game of the season, and probably the best game of her life. LaRuche is a scrappy full-court pressing team, and Rina is our point guard, so they sent their best defender to hound her. Then they sent their best two defenders. Then THREE. And it didn’t matter. Rina’s handle was as sick as I’ve ever seen it, she had the ball on a string, she could do no wrong, she was a 5’0” dark-haired Steph Curry who slithered and darted and left her defenders grasping for a shadow that they couldn’t even foul, much less stop. It was epic. Rina was in that rarest of places – The Zone.
And finally, ask Mr. Simard, who’s seen a lot of basketball in his career, and who had this to say immediately after the game – “that was some great basketball out there”. (and just so you know, for Mr. Simard, that’s as big as compliments come!).
In terms of the game itself, LaRuche never gave up after that incredible 1st quarter (19-5 for the good guys), and pushed as hard as they could for the comeback. But Taniahashi (see what I did there? ) was just too ridiculously good on this day. Rina kept slicing through the press and dishing assists and scooping layups (9 pts, 5 assists, and only one (!) turnover), and Tania kept nailing backbreaking jump shots – with a smile .
Final score 49-40 for the Red & White, and it couldn’t have been much more satisfying. But we’ve got LaRuche again on Feb 17th, a revenge match, and this time it’s at their house.
I can only hope that it’ll be as exciting and hard-fought as this one was!
(From the Stanstead College website, February 17th)
LaRuche Part 2
The first game we played against LaRuche was epic, a 49-40 victory for your Spartans just two weeks ago in the friendly confines of the Mackay Gymnasium. It was fast, exciting action – two evenly matched teams giving their all in a game that would be ultimately decided by a few plays here or there.
The second game, played this past Wednesday, was pretty much the same, except for two big differences – 1) the game was played at LaRuche, and 2) we lost 55-44.
But in all other respects it was the same game as last time. Up and down action, full court pressing, halfcourt trapping. A game played at hyper-speed. A track meet disguised as a basketball game.
And I guess there was one other difference this time, in that this was a game of runs. One team would get hot for a while and dominate, then the other team would reciprocate. We charged out of the gate, scoring the first 9 points of the game. Then LaRuche went on a 7-2 run. Then in the 2nd quarter LaRuche went on another run, this time scoring 13 points in a row. We responded with an 8-0 burst in the 3rd quarter, nosing ahead to a 38-35 lead, but then LaRuche exploded with 18(!) unanswered points. We pressed and tried to rally late, scoring 6 in a row, but ultimately we ran out of time, and the game finished 55-44 for LaRuche.
Defensively we genuinely missed Kaylee’s presence in the middle, but Susannah made real strides throughout the game to pick up the slack. Otherwise we did what we did last time – forced our opponents to take a lot of rushed outside shots – but to LaRuche’s credit they just made more of them this time. In truth, both teams shot well, especially in a high-scoring 1st half that finished 31-30. We cooled off in the 2nd half, but overall I was happy with our equal opportunity offense, as Rina, Chloe, Mackenzy and Tania all ended up with at least 8 pts each.
Overall it was another fun, exciting game. Just like last time. I look forward to playing this hard-working, classy, well-coached team next year and for many more years to come.
(From the Stanstead College website, February 20th)
Spartans Basketball Tour
It was like we were a rock group or something, stepping off the bus at three different venues over two days to play three different Montreal teams. We were Taylor Swish. We were Foul Out Boy. (hey, don’t groan, those were pretty good! )
First Gig:
Friday morning, 11:00 am against the St. Thomas Knights. The bad news – St. Thomas had only just started their season due to the public school strike. The good news – they were high-caliber community ballers who, regardless of how little they’d practiced together, were going to present a serious challenge.
And what a challenge it was. The Knights were talented, tall, experienced and poised. Did I mention tall? They could shoot, they could rebound, and they moved the ball as if they’d been playing together for years. Usually our defensive pressure flusters teams, but not these girls. They refused to get caught in our traps, and they rarely threw the ball away.
So without the extra possessions we usually get from our defense forcing turnovers, this game was tough sledding. It took all we had to force them into difficult shots, to finish defensive possessions with the rebound, to score against their big, athletic 2-3 zone. Nothing came easy, and that’s why I was pretty proud of the girls for going into halftime only down 22-19.
We tried a few different things in the 2nd half, but St. Thomas adjusted quickly and competently, extending their lead to 38-28 by the end of the 3rd quarter. And although we locked down defensively in the 4th, allowing only 6 points, we couldn’t take advantage of our offensive opportunities, ultimately losing this well-contested game 44-32. Kudos to all players for a strong effort against such a formidable opponent, and special congratulations to Player Of The GameTM Chloe Van Dyke for leading all scorers with 15 pts, including three triples.
Second Gig:
Another public school team, the Royal West Academy Wildcats. I’d never played them in my career, so we knew nothing about them. And after the first minute of play I was concerned, as two of their players were very fast and had even faster hands, as demonstrated by them straight up stealing the ball from our guards twice in the first 3 possessions.
But the next few times they tried it they were whistled for fouls, and that was the end of the good news for the Wildcats, as from that point on your Spartans could do no wrong. The press and the defense started creating turnovers at a drastic rate, rarely letting our opponents even take a good shot. Chloe went into Van Slaught mode, detonating their 2-3 zone with 3 three-pointers in four minutes, prompting the Royal West coach to switch to man.
And then we ran our man offense better than we had at any point in the season. Highlights were plentiful, and included Susannah making two perfect cuts in a row for back to back uncontested layups, Marie-Ange making a textbook move from the high post for two, Rina slicing to the hoop for a bucket after a handoff from Mackenzy, Kayla scoring twice in a row on the pick and roll, Misha calmly draining an open jumper, and Kenz finishing inside on a sweet pass from Chloe. All these pretty baskets left Royal West spinning, unsure of where the next attack was going to come from, and I can’t blame them. When Rina and Mya run the offense that well, when their decision-making is that spot-on, it’s tough for opposing defenses to deal with, especially at such an early point in their season.
When the final whistle blew the score read 44-16 for the Red & White, with every player scoring, led by Chloe’s game-high 11 pts. Sometimes, it’s uncommon, but sometimes play-design and strategies work out exactly the way you draw them up. This was one of those games – so much fun!
Final Gig:
Saturday, 2:00 pm. The Steel Cage Revenge Death Match (okay, maybe not “Death” ) against ECS. That rare game where the coaching staff doesn’t need to do anything to rev up the team, as the girls had been looking forward to this one ever since ECS had beaten us and won gold at the MIS. This day had been marked on the players’ calendars for weeks. The Spartans were stoked.
And played a great first half. After a period of adjustment getting used to the tiny gym, Rina ran the offense beautifully, threading clever bounce passes to Tania and Chloe on the wings. Defensively we were extremely active, hounding ECS incessantly, giving them no breathing room and no easy looks and confusing them with our full- and half-court pressure. Susannah settled our zone offense down with solid, consistent screens at the top, which allowed Chloe to once again detonate with a 9-point 1st quarter Van Slaught. Kayla started playing like Kaylee (who was home sick) in the middle of our defense. And Mackenzy started imposing her will on offense, catching tough passes in the middle of the Beavers’ zone and then either kicking it out to our shooters, hitting cutters underneath, or scoring herself. A hard-fought 26-23 lead at halftime, and we were feeling pretty good about things.
ECS, however, never gives up. By the middle of the 3rd quarter they’d forged a 7-3 run to go up 30-29, and you could feel the momentum swinging. Their fans got louder, the ECS players looked more confident, and it seemed like the ball started bouncing the wrong way for us.
But then your Spartans dug deep, and produced one of this season’s best stretches of basketball.
1) Rina was assigned to lock down their superstar shooting guard. She scored one basket the rest of the way.
2) Kayla was assigned to lock down their talented point guard. She scored two free throws the rest of the way.
3) Mya came in off the bench and provided such a spark of toughness and intelligence and poise that we couldn’t take her off.
4) Kenz continued to dominate inside, scoring 8 pts in the half (16 total) on an assortment of tough finishes and putbacks, and earning Player Of The GameTM honours.
5) And finally, with the score 38-32 for us and ECS making their last push, Chloe hit the dagger three to ice the game!
Final score 43-37, and smiles all around. A fantastic, well-earned win, and a great weekend overall.
But now is probably the time to remind the players WHY we played these games this weekend. Why we’ve played such a tough exhibition schedule this season.
To prepare for this Thursday/Friday. The biggest event of the year. The MacLeod Provincials.
Three more days.
(From the Stanstead College website, February 25th)
The Provincials
We’d worked all season for this, the AAESQ Macleod Provincial Tournament. We’d beefed up our schedule (in the absence of ETIAC) with exhibition games against some seriously tough teams (LaRuche, Vermont Academy, ECS, three Triple “A” teams in St. Bruno) so that we’d be ready for the speed, toughness and talent of this winner-take-all tournament. Did it work?
Round-Robin Game #1 vs Alexander Galt Regional High School
Talk about your tough divisions. The always dangerous Pipers were somehow ranked at the bottom of our pool (3rd out of 3 teams) despite beating College Sacre-Coeur (the top team in the Townships) two weeks earlier. They were on a winning streak, they were peaking, and they were confident.
But the Red & White were as pumped pre-game as I’ve seen them all season. Good nervousness. Total investment. A crisp, businesslike warmup. Game faces all the way on in the opening huddle of the most important game of the year…
…and the girls EXPLODED out of the gate with their best start of the season! Chloe Van Dyke opened the game with a triple, Tania Tesson closed the quarter with her own three, in between we ran our zone offense immaculately, and defensively we were…what’s the word?...simply AMAZING. Our 1-3-1 zone had our opponents befuddled, and our full court press gave them no time to figure things out. Deflections, steals, forced turnovers – it was a clinic on pressure-defense for the first 8 minutes, and when the dust cleared your Spartans had mauled the Pipers (on their home floor no less!) to the tune of 17-3. Ho. Ly. Smokes. What a clutch performance. When it mattered most, the girls brought their best. What else can a coach ask for?
We cooled off in the 2nd quarter a bit, but still went into halftime with a comfortable 29-15 lead. But the Pipers are well-coached and never give up. By the middle of the 3rd they’d deciphered our 1-3-1, so we switched to triangle and 2. It worked well enough, but our finishing inside let us down, allowing Galt to cut the lead to 32-24.
So now we have to protect an 8-point lead in the biggest 4th quarter of the season to move on to the semis. The Pipers are desperate and hungry. But so are we. Both teams lock down defensively. Good looks are hard to come by, actual baskets even harder. Tania splits a pair of free throws. 33-24. 6 minutes left. Galt nails a jumper. 33-26. Then another one. 33-28. Uh oh. 4 minutes left. No one can score. 3 minutes. The next basket will be huge. 2 minutes. Rina Takahashi splits the top of the zone, contorts, gets off a runner, and it banks in! 35-28! Almost there…almost home…and then Chloe nails the dagger three on the next possession! It’s over! Final score 39-31, and we’d pretty much guaranteed ourselves a berth in the MacLeod Semifinals.
Round-Robin Game #2 vs Ecole Notre-Dame des Lourdes
This would be our 2nd full game of the day (with only one game’s rest in between), and NDL’s first. And that, folks, was the difference. We played ‘em tough in the 1st quarter, tying them 11-11, but we ran out of gas in the 2nd quarter. How badly did we run out of gas? How about losing the quarter 19-0? 19-0!! Down 30-11 at halftime, and there was a real danger of this one turning into a laugher.
But all season long this team has responded to large deficits with inspired basketball, and this game would be no exception. Tania carried us through the 3rd quarter, scoring 7 of our 9 points. And when NDL sold out to deny Tania and Chloe on the wings, Rina and MacKenzy St.-Pierre took over, sparking a 13-0 desperation run in the 4th quarter. But the hole we’d dug ourselves was too big. Despite the late game heroics, we ultimately fell 49-39, which meant our semifinal opponent would be none other than the #1-ranked, 2-time defending champion Heritage Huskies.
Gulp.
Semifinals vs Heritage High School
Too good. The Huskies are just too good. Too skilled, too fast, and too athletic. Early in the 2nd quarter we’d tried everything, but nothing really came close to working. 21-4 for them. We were reeling.
But in what may turn out to be the final game of the 2015-2016 campaign, your Spartans did what they always do. With their backs up against it, they dug in. The Huskies poured in 15 more points to finish off the half, but so did we, led by Rina and Kenz figuring out how to get inside the 3-2 zone. We kept pace in the 3rd, barely losing the quarter 15-13, with Tania leading the way offensively. And in the 4th we gave all we had left in the tank to win the quarter 11-10. Final score 61-43, but let it be known that after that nightmare 21-4 start, the Spartans played the Huskies to a draw.
All in all, I am pleased. We played 10 strong quarters out of 12, beat a very good Galt team when it really mattered to make the semis, and lost to the deserving eventual champions.
So did it work? Did our schedule this year prepare us? Definitely. We played some truly impressive high-caliber basketball at times this season. And with most of the team returning next year, a little older and a little tougher, I’m already looking forward to 2016-2017.
Heck, I’m already looking forward to CAIS!