2016-2017

(From the Stanstead College yearbook)

Senior Girls

Before this season started, I knew we were going to be good. Talent. Experience. Passion for the game. We had it all. If we were ever going to win the ultimate prize - the MacLeod Provincials - it had to be this year. Rightly or wrongly, I put all our eggs in one basket before we'd even played our first game. MacLeod or bust. With that in mind, we made three critical decisions.

1) We joined the hardest league we could to prepare us, RSEQ Division II, even though we would be ineligible for their playoffs (which fell on our March Break). It was worth it to play 12 games against the best teams in the Townships.

2) We put a premium on dirty work, i.e. loose balls and rebounding. There are lots of talented teams out there, but only those that focus on the dirty work are truly elite.

3) We took a risk and installed a brand new, untested defensive system that relied on athleticism, hustle and intelligence. I'd never even seen it played at the high 1 school level, but it looked like it could fit our players.

And we were rewarded for every single decision! 9 of our 12 RSEQ games were super-competitive barnburners that toughened us up and forced us to learn how to play at elite speed. Our defensive and offensive rebounding improved immensely. And most importantly, that new defence became the best I've ever coached. Against top-notch competition we allowed 22 pts per game. Less than 6(!) pts per quarter. Opposing players were flummoxed. Opposing coaches complimented us. Spectators were amazed. Referees raved. And most importantly, the players completely bought into it, owned it, became defined by it.

The accomplishments started rolling in. Silver at CAIS. Champions at our own Invitational. A victory against perennial powerhouse Sacre-Coeur. Gold at the Montreal and BCS Invitationals. Consecutive wins against LaRuche. The RSEQ "Ethique Sportive" banner for the most sportsmanship in the league. Championship at the Bailly Small Schools Provincials.

But there was one thing left. The MacLeod. This was our chance. Ranked #1 going in. But after breezing through to the finals, we found ourselves down 5 pts to NDL (another RSEQ Div II team) to start the 4th quarter. Eight more minutes to grab the brass ring, or let it slip. And in the most important quarter of SC basketball history, your Spartans would not be denied. A 19-9 finish under the most intense pressure, a 52-47 victory, and the dream had come true. After 64 years, and four losses in the finals, the MacLeod banner would finally hang in the Mackay Gymnasium.

Alyssa. Ashley. Brianna. Chloe. Jessica. Kayla. Mackenzy. Marie-Ange. Mya. Rina. Tania. You young women make up the most successful team in Stanstead basketball history, and you did it the right way. You worked for everything you got, you were classy, and you had loads of fun. I cannot be prouder of you than I am. Thank you, all of you.

Junior Girls

At the beginning of the year. I was particularly confident we'd have a great season because the majority of last year's team was returning. To my surprise. I went to the gym for the first practice not with a team of 8 but more like 14. and 10 girls were less than 5'5". In addition, some of these players had never played basketball before. In short, I had to try different combinations throughout the season to optimize our chances.

Returning from the Christmas break, we had a tournament in Montreal. My players didn't seem so confident, especially since the other teams expected us to be the team to beat. We thought we would lose the majority of our games and come back with just a T-shirt. Surprisingly, we defeated our biggest rivals and we ended up in the final. It was a great moral victory!

Throughout the season. I had girls who thought they could not play because they didn't think they were good enough, but at the end, each of my players had at least one basket and they all improved.

However, like everything that goes up. the team experienced a fall. At one point, we stopped playing as a team and thought we were superior to others, so we lost against Massey-Vanier in final of our playoffs. We still managed to finish our season the right way by finally winning the Dunn Tournament with an awesome game in the final. I was really proud of my team at that moment.

I would like to thank each girl for her contribution to the team. Whether they were there to make girls laugh, encourage them, advise them or help them become better at basketball, they all showed that with teamwork, something surprising can be achieved. Thank you for everything and for all the moments we spent laughing.

Bantam Girls

"Attitude lies somewhere between emotion k and logic - it is the curious mix of optimism and determination that enables you to maintain a positive outlook in the face of adverse circumstances" - Pat Summitt

If there was one thing that the bantam girls were professional at this season, it was attitude and optimism! Although we struggled from time to time on the court when it came to scoring baskets, we were never the quietest team, we were never the shy team and we were never the team that didn't laugh. We were the team that I never gave up, that cheered for our teammates no matter the score! Each team we played against, in Montreal, Sherbrooke, Vermont or here at home, commented on your sportsmanship and determination, things I am very proud of. Although you may not have always enjoyed the practices (burpees and 'Bring Sally Up'), you did try your best. Although you may never have dribbled a basketball before, you can now! And you can shoot, and lay it up, catch a pass and go for an interception. In fact, if you keep at it with the positive attitude, and the optimism -there is nothing you can't do! Thank you for a fun-filled season!

(From the Stanstead College website, November 18th)

Home Opener!

Fifteen-year old Mackenzy St-Pierre came up to me in the hallway last Friday morning, telling me how nervous she was. Okay, not just nervous. More like panicked. More like completely freaked out.

And I was no comfort to her whatsoever, because I was even more freaked out than she was.

You see, last Friday night was the first game of the season for the 2016-17 edition of Senior Girls Spartans Basketball. But not just any first game, it was the home opener. And seriously, did our home opener really have to be against Le Triolet, maybe the best basketball team in the Eastern Townships?

Le Triolet.

Gulp.

Maybe we’d done the wrong thing going Division 2 this season? Sure, I knew we were going to be a good team, but all day Friday I was kinda wishing I’d made the safe choice and just gone D3. I mean, what if Triolet completely embarrassed us? What if this little team from Stanstead was in over their heads, and didn’t belong in the big leagues?

Mackenzy and I weren’t the only anxious ones. Every player I saw that day was a nervous wreck. Even Coach Wolfe was a mess. As the hours and minutes counted down to gametime, the tension grew. And when Les Harfangs finally, confidently strolled into Mackay, the mood of the Spartans was one part intimidation, one part nerves, and one part excitement.

The pregame speech focused not on x’s and o’s or strategy, but on intensity and desperation. To play at this level, you have to treat every play like it’s the most important play of the game.

And I am proud to say that your Stanstead Spartans did just that. Even though we fell behind 9-2 in the 1st quarter, we scrapped and clawed for every inch. Every defensive possession. Every rebound.

And as the game wore on we started getting more confident, slowly but surely cutting into the lead. Admittedly, we had trouble scoring, but that made sense since we’d spent 80% of our practice time focusing on defense. And we knew our hard work had paid off when we made our push and held the mighty Harfangs to, get this, only 4 points in the entire 3rd quarter! Despite an anemic offense, our disciplined and gutsy defensive effort had made it a two point game with one quarter to play.

But that was as close as we would get. Ultimately we couldn’t manufacture enough offense to climb all the way back, but I look at the final 35-25 score as a legitimate moral victory. At tip off we weren’t sure if Stanstead College belonged on the same floor as Triolet. We didn’t know if the Spartans belonged in D2.

Well kids, the Spartans belong. And we ain’t goin’ anywhere.

(From the Stanstead College website)

Spartans Doomed by Turnovers at CSC

We did a lot of things right this game.

After falling behind 6-0 early, that impressive Spartans defense locked all the way in, allowing a paltry 19 points to College Sacre-Coeur over the course of the next two and a half quarters.

As a team we battled hard on the defensive boards, and even stole some offensive rebounds thanks to Marie-Ange Loiselle and Kayla Ouellet.

Despite our athletic opponents (and the tiny gym) frustrating our offensive sets, Brianna Grapes and Player Of The GameTM Chloe Van Dyke shot the ball well from outside, keeping us in it by “both being ON at the same time”.

Mackenzy St-Pierre learned that fighting for post position all game long is pretty darn tiring!

Mya Daigle provided quality minutes off the bench, using her experience, poise and toughness to efficiently run the offense.

And the entire team played hard from the opening tap to the final whistle.

But to beat a perennial powerhouse like CSC, you have to do everything well, and unfortunately we did NOT take care of the basketball. I mean, not at all. If I had to guess, I would say we turned the ball over 25 times. That means 25 times we did not even take a shot, because we were too panicked by the speed of the game and/or we were just too loose with the rock. And the way Bree and Chloe were shooting it, 25 more shots would have guaranteed us the victory.

As it turns out, your Spartans were still up 34-25 to start the 4th quarter, but that’s when the turnovers really caught up to us and the wheels came all the way off. With their fans going wild Sacre-Coeur came all the way back, and with 35 seconds remaining the score was 37-36 for us. CSC ball. Despite all the turnovers if we could get one more stop we were going to leave that intimidating, tiny gym with the most satisfying victory of the season. One more stop.

But their post player made an impressive game-winning circus layup with 20 seconds left to ultimately steal the game from us. After some desperate fouling failed to pan out, the final horn sounded with the scoreboard reading 40-37 for Sacre-Coeur.

Tough loss. But you learn more from your losses than you do from your wins, so we know what to focus on tomorrow in practice. Because in case y’all forgot, we got a little thing called CAIS coming up in, oh, I don’t know, 3 days?

Wow. CAIS in 3 days.

Let’s use this to make us better. Let’s use this to try to make HISTORY.

(From the Stanstead College website)

SIT Tournament

After a one-year hiatus, the Stanstead Invitational Tournament returned this past Saturday, with your Spartans hosting teams from Lennoxville, Montreal and Quebec City in the friendly confines of the Mackay Gymnasium.

And in impressive fashion, your Spartans won the day. Over the course of the tournament every single player contributed to one of the best performances I’ve ever seen from a Stanstead team at such an early point in the season. A 32-7 win over BCS, a 50-10 victory over Quebec High, and in our best game of the tourney a 39-14 win over one of our toughest rivals, ECS.

What was the secret? A little bit of math will demonstrate why we so convincingly came away with the Championship Plaque.

7 + 10 + 14 = 31.

31 points allowed throughout the entire tournament. An average of 2.5 points per quarter. Stifling. Suffocating. Complete and utter lockdown. Frustrating to play against, invigorating to be a part of. When all five players on the floor work together that well, when every single player takes that much pride in their defence – did I mention 2.5 points per quarter?! – it’s exciting to watch and it’s a joy to coach.

From Rina and Brianna running themselves ragged from side to side, to Marie-Ange and Kayla improving their rotations, to Chloe reinventing herself as a dominant defensive rebounder, to Mackenzy battling down low and blocking shots up high – it was a clinic.

Outside shots contested, passes deflected, layups rejected – and home court protected.

Other highlights for me included Alyssa attacking strong inside, less turnovers in transition as the day went on, Chloe’s over-the-top outlet pass to Kenz, Mya’s pick n roll pocket pass to Alyssa, Rina’s pullup jumpers, Brianna’s decision-making, improved offensive rebounding against ECS, Jessica turning her back completely whenever she bumped down , and of course the post-tourney Mannequin Challenge, directed by Ava St-Pierre!

Kudos to Tania Tesson for her All-Star trophy, Rina Takahashi for being named the Tournament MVP, and congratulations to the entire team for such an exceptional day. We’ve learned a lot in the last couple of days, but we gotta keep improving because tomorrow we have our first road game (against perennial powerhouse College Sacre-Coeur), and 3 days later we head off to one of the biggest highlights of the season – CAIS 2016!

Wear your medals with pride, ladies – you earned them!

(From the Stanstead College website)

CAIS Tournament

Reflections – Sipping at the Stream of Consciousness

......musings, observations and the occasional insight from our Silver Medal finish at the CAIS National Tournament this past weekend......

…with the team we’ve got this year, some schools just aren’t going to be able to match up with us. That was the case in the opening game of CAIS 2016, as Montreal’s Trafalgar School found themselves down 17-0 after only 4 minutes had gone by, amidst a tornado of steals, ball pressure, layups and jump shots. Final score 41-12, with the Traf coach expressing her gratitude and respect after the game with how we classily kept the game from getting out of hand…

…the Highlight Of The GameTM definitely goes to rookie Jessica Ramirez, whose teammates spent the entire 4th quarter trying to get her the first basket of her life. Three shots in a row from the elbow…5 shots…6…7…every time she shot it the bench rose in anticipation, but the ball just wouldn’t fall…8 shots…9…only 30 seconds left in the game, last chance, and on her 10th and final shot it rattles home! Big smile…great fun…

…I think I made a strategic mistake in the Ridley game, and overcompensated for the presence of their superstar center #13. Sure, we held her to 3 pts, but we compromised the defense trying to deny her the ball. We shot well enough to win – 7 threes from Brianna, Rina, Chloe and Tania – but their two all-star guards torched us for 23 and 19. A 50-42 loss, and a very difficult road now to get to The Finals, as we basically had to win out, not a sliver of room for error...

…so our final round-robin game was Must-Win Game #1 if we wanted to advance to the Top Eight. Luckily, the Spartan forwards really came to play, and dominated. Kayla and Alyssa had good games, Mackenzy and Marie-Ange had GREAT games, and when the dust settled we had prevailed 41-15.

Quote Of The GameTM goes to the most polite person I know, Emily Graham – “umm, just to clarify, Miss, man-to-man means playing the player?...oh, okay Miss, thank you!”

…the Quarterfinals vs King’s Edgehill – a very good, extremely well-coached team – represents our best, most complete game of the season. After falling behind 8-2 early, we outscored them the rest of the way…get this…40-10! The defense was phenomenal, the best it’s ever been, deflections, steals, allowing nothing, anywhere, completely frustrating our opponents. Committed defensive rebounding by everyone. Active offensive rebounding, especially Marie-Ange. Rina taking care of the ball despite severe ball pressure. Mackenzy’s improved post moves. The man-offense working so well they switch to zone, and then Chloe splashing 3 threes to make them switch back. And finally, Emily hitting the first jump shot of her life and then smiling like an 8-year old at Christmas to top it all off.

What a game! The Power of the Braid! Final score 42-18, and the Red & White were in the CAIS Semis!!

…this is the game I’m most proud of, because it was the ultimate TEAM accomplishment. With Rothesay Netherwood School seemingly unable to miss in the 1st half, and Rina (stomach) and Marie-Ange (neck) both unable to play, girls stepped up. Kayla was fantastic, the no-stat allstar who does all the little things. Alyssa provided critical minutes to give Mackenzy rest. Mya had an incredible game running the offense. And Player Of The GameTM Tania Tesson? All she did was score 18 (!) 2nd half points to allow SC to pull away from a tough team that had kept it very close (23-20) at halftime. Final score 46-26, but that score does not tell the story. This game was a testament to depth, to teamwork, to being ready when called upon…

…The CAIS Finals. aka The Ridley Rematch. aka The Most Exciting Loss I’ve Ever Been A Part Of…

This game had all the drama, the big halftime deficit, the 2nd half comeback, the pro-Stanstead crowd going bonkers at every made basket (ECS was even waving our warmups as towels – thanks, Mya!), the hustle, the noise, the pressure, the individual great plays, long threes, blocked shots, steals,

I mean, this game HAD IT ALL…

…but the basketball gods were against us in this one. Sometimes the ball bounces your way, and sometimes it doesn’t. Your Spartans did SO many things right, especially in the 2nd half, and forced so many 24-sec violations, and forced so many tough shots, and took so many great, open shots ourselves, but too many of ours rimmed out, and too many of theirs banked in. I’m still sad thinking about the opportunity we just, just missed (44-41 loss in the CAIS Finals), but if I think a little deeper I remember…

…how proud I am that this group of girls, this TEAM, dug in and came back after a rough 1st half…

…Player Of The GameTM Brianna Grapes’ scintillating 17-pt performance…

…15-yr old Mackenzy shutting down #13…

…5 ft tall Rina shutting down #3…

…how it felt when, after slowly climbing back the whole 2nd half, Kenz finally tied the game 41-41 with 90 seconds left and how the gym exploded…

…and how the girls never, EVER stopped fighting, to the last possible second…

Silver Medals at CAIS.

Maybe not the result we wanted, but let’s remember that’s the Best Finish Ever for a Stanstead basketball team, boys OR girls, at a National Tournament.

Let’s remember it’s still early in the season, and we’re going to keep getting better.

And let’s never forget, ever, Alyssa’s birthday chicken dance on top of a table at Eastside Mario’s.

Did that really happen?

(From the Stanstead College website, November 30th)

Living by the Three…

We did a lot of things poorly last Wednesday against LaRuche, in what was probably the worst game of the year so far for your Spartans. We turned the ball over. Our overall shooting percentage was under 20%. We panicked under pressure. Our offensive rebounding was non-existent. We took a grand total of 6 free throws. We were impatient. We were rattled. And we tried our darnedest to blow a 5-point lead in the last 40 seconds.

So how did we end up with our first official RSEQ win, 39-37 against a strong, well-coached squad?

1) LaRuche didn’t play that well either. Despite ramping it up in the 4th quarter, their coach wasn’t thrilled with his team’s overall effort, and knows his girls can play harder and better.

2) Our defense was still pretty good. Not our best, but outside of a lull in the 3rd quarter where we allowed too many open jumpers (which LaRuche made us pay for, that’s for sure), we forced our opponents to take a lot of tough shots.

3) We were solid on the defensive glass, finishing off almost all of our defensive possessions with a strong rebound.

4) Player Of The GameTM Brianna Grapes was feeling it. In fact, her 16-pt performance represents over 40% of the Red & White’s offensive output.

…and most importantly…

5) The three-point shot. Check out this statistic – LaRuche put the ball in the basket 17 times this game, while Stanstead only managed to 14 times. But of those 14, seven of the Spartans’ fieldgoals were threes. Half of them!

And that, my friends, is the difference in the game. Threes are a big deal in girls’ basketball. They’re not just worth one more point than a normal 2-point basket, they’re worth 50% more. Consider this – 7 normal fieldgoals are worth 14 points, while 7 threes are worth 21(!). It’s kinda crazy when you think about it, but crazy or not, we’ve got some players this year who can really shoot it, so they’ve got the green light this year to let it fly. Bombs away. Live by the three, and hopefully not die by the three .

Have a great Holiday Season, ladies. And please try to stay in basketball shape, because we’ve got one of the busiest Januarys ever coming up, with the M.I.S. the BCS Invitational, and the Anderson-Bailly ALL happening in three consecutive weekends. That’s never happened, at least in my coaching career.

We’ve got a chance to make some memories next month, folks. I can’t wait!

(From the Stanstead College website, January 14th)

Mtl Independent Schools Report – aka Troy Bolton Would Be Proud

Round-Robin Play: Game #1 vs Lower Canada College

In the pre-game huddle we talked about one thing; 2nd-chance points. We need to create more extra offensive possessions, through offensive rebounding, loose balls and toughness. We know we’re okay at pretty things like pick n rolls and 3-pointers, but we never get the ugly points. So the last week of practice we worked on adjusting our attitude. We drilled to get hungrier. “That rebound is not my teammates’ responsibility, it is MY responsibility.” That’s MY ball. GO GET IT.

And for the first time this season, and to the joy of the coaches, that’s exactly how the girls played. I have never seen the Spartans fly around and fight like that to get at least a piece of every rebound. By the end of the game we had poured in 10 2nd-chance points, which was about 8 more than our season average. Nice!

Unfortunately, we still lost the game, 32-35. We shot well enough from outside, with Brianna Grapes and Chloe Van Dyke combining for 22 pts, but the bounces seemed not to go our way and we couldn’t contain the Lions’ all-world #15, who lit us up for 26. However, in a huge stroke of luck, this year’s tourney would be the first one ever where two teams from each division qualify for the Championship Division (instead of just one), meaning we still had a chance to make the Top 8 and compete for the title. We just had to make sure we won our next two round-robin games…

Game #2 vs West Island College

Sadly, WIC’s talented point guard was injured, which made things really tough for our opponents, especially with respect to ball-handling. In fact, the final statsheet shows 21 steals for the Red & White, with many of those steals leading to uncontested breakaway layups. Rina Takahashi benefitted the most from this, with a game-high 17 points, while Alyssa MacPherson chipped in with 7 of her own. A 44-20 final score (with 11 2nd-chance points!) against such a hard-working team is a great result. Now if we win our final Friday game we’re into the Top 8…

Game #3 vs St. George’s School of Montreal

From the start the host school was overmatched against us, but to their credit they never gave up and never stopped working. 42-8 final score (9 2nd-chance points), with Chloe and Marie-Ange Loiselle combining for 24 pts and Mackenzy St.-Pierre hosting her own block party with six rejections in one 5-min interval.

The good news is, we had qualified for the Championship Division. The bad news was, because of our loss, we would have to beat a murderer’s row of teams if we wanted to ultimately hoist the Banner. All teams that had won their divisions. All “number ones”.

QuarterFinals vs Villa Maria High School.

After a great warm-up, your Spartans came out flying against a dangerous, confident Villa team. Defensively we flummoxed our opponents with our zone rotations, and offensively our man offense created great inside looks time and again. In the end, this comprehensive 48-16 victory (19-3 to start the game!) was our best team effort of the tournament, as everyone made significant contributions. Alyssa played her best stretch of the season coming in for Kenz when Kenz slightly turned her ankle. Rina and Mya made smart decisions on offense. Marie-Ange had her best defensive game. Chloe finished strong in transition. Bree, Rina and Mya adjusted well to take away Villa’s double-high-post offense. Team defensive rebounding was outstanding, and our offensive rebounding was even better, leading to 14 2nd-chance points. Oh, and did I mention that every single player scored?! Truthfully, we could not have executed much better than we did, which was a great sign, as our SemiFinal opponent would be ECS – always tough, always in-your-face, always a take-no-prisoners battle.

SemiFinals vs E.C.S.

If Villa was our best-executed game, ECS was our gutsiest. Playing the Beavers is always a struggle just to get the ball across half, as they athletically pressure EVERYTHING. No let-up. No rest. And with this being our 5th game (!) in less than 24 hours, I wouldn’t have blamed the players for losing their edge. But holy smokes, did they ever step up! Chloe, Marie-Ange, Kenz and Kayla were vacuums on the defensive glass. Rina was incredible bringing up the ball. Team-wide the decision-making from the guards, under duress, was excellent, and the defensive communication between Kenz and her forwards was the best it’s been this season. I mean, ECS is as well-coached a team as you’re going to see, but once we started slipping their backscreens, we gave them nowhere else to go with the ball. Another great thing was how, when Bree’s and Chloe’s and Rina’s outside shooting forced ECS to spread their zone, our guards immediately adjusted and fed the ball inside to our forwards, who now had tons of space to operate.

However, despite the all-round excellence of this team effort, two players still stand out. Player Of The GameTM #1 is Kayla Ouellet, whose hustle and rebounding and intelligent defense (6 steals!) allowed us to hold ECS off when our shooting went cold in the 3rd quarter. And Player Of The GameTM #2 goes to Mackenzy St.-Pierre, who attacked the inside of ECS’s 3-2 zone to the tune of 17 pts and 4 drawn fouls.

Ultimately, ECS couldn’t recover from our torrid start (19-3 to start the game), and when they did pull closer (29-17 with 10 min to go), we responded with an electrifying 11-0 run to salt the game away. And lemme tell you, the 40-19 final score does NOT tell the story of how hard the girls had to work in this game. They should be very proud of their effort. One more game to go…

FINALS vs Lower Canada College

Against the team that beat us a day earlier. Revenge match. How poetic .

Skip to halftime. Down 20-16. Despite having Kenz practically inside her jersey the entire time, #15 was proving unstoppable and had torched us for 14 in the half. Montreal crowd against us. Defense looking disorganized. Shots not falling. Then, in the huddle, Captain Rina speaks up; “I’m tired of being in Finals and losing. I want to win one.”

And in the final half of their 6th game in 2 days, her teammates dug as deep as they could, and responded. Kenz fought back tears of fatigue and held #15 to only 7 2nd half points (prompting random parents post-game to compliment her on her performance). Rina ran the offense perfectly and made huge plays on defense. Kayla, the No-Stat-Allstar, combined hustle and poise like never before. And Players Of The GameTM Chloanna Van Grapes simply took over. Check out this sequence: 6 seconds into the 2nd half Chloe splashes a three. 30 sec later she does it again. Then Brianna fakes a three and drives for two. Then Chloe nails another three. And then another! A true Vanslaught! 14 unanswered points and in the blink of an eye we’re up by 10. LCC cuts it to 6, then Bree drains a triple. But the Lions won’t go away that easily. 35-28, five minutes left, Bree drives, gets hit, AND 1! 2 minutes left, 41-32, LCC’s last push, but Bree nails the coffin shut with one final three – The Dagger! Final score 45-35, led by Chloe’s and Brianna’s 24 combined 2nd half points. What a comeback. What a game. What a day. What a tournament .

Wear your medals with pride, ladies, but don’t forget how HARD you had to work to win them. Remember how tired and banged up you were getting off the bus Saturday night. That’s the effort and guts it will take for us to meet our potential this year.

But we now know we can do it. No more doubts. GO GET IT.

(From the Stanstead College website, January 16th)

Lockdown

Sometimes the ball just won’t go in the basket. You take all the proper shots, in rhythm, they look good in the air, but nothing falls. Last Monday vs Alexander Galt was like that. Throughout the entire 1st half your Stanstead Spartans, in front of their home crowd, fresh off a scintillating victory at the MIS, made a grand total of three baskets. Add in some free throws, and we finished the first two quarters of the game with 13 measly points.

And we were still winning by 7.

That, my friends, is lockdown defense. We stubbornly refused to give them any quality scoring opportunities. We didn’t let them inside. We rushed their outside shots. We committed no fouls so they never got to the free throw line. You could see the frustration building.

And things would only get worse.

In a defensive display that I have never witnessed against a team as athletic and hardworking as Galt, we shut them out in the 2nd half. Phenomenal defensive rebounding (Kenz, Chloe, Alyssa), deflections (Kayla), steals (12 combined from Chloe and Rina), blocked shots (Chloanna Van Pierre with 3 blocks in one possession!) – the Red & White were firing on all defensive cylinders. And then, finally, led by Rina, the shots started to drop.

When the dust cleared and the final buzzer sounded, the Spartans had earned a comprehensive 43-6 victory against their Lennoxville rivals, and had also learned a valuable lesson – offense is untrustworthy, but defense can be relied upon.

Up next – the BCS Invitational Tournament!

(From the Stanstead College website, January 21st)

On a Roll

It’s been a long time since your Spartans have been on a roll like this. At least eight years if memory serves, back when Hall of Famers Andrea Dumas and Necola Guerrina were leading the 2007-08 Spartans to multiple tourney wins and a 25-4 record. Before that? Probably that insane 2000-02 stretch when SC legends Megan Lill and Katherine Wright led the Red & White to 62 wins vs 12 losses over a ridonkulous two-year span.

Yeah, it’s been a while, but this past weekend at the BCS Invitational makes me think that maybe 2016-17 could be another magical year. Because the players on this team right now are meshing and complementing each other as well as I’ve ever seen. No, we don’t have an unstoppable scorer like Wright or Dumas who can drop 30 pts in her sleep, but these Spartans play so TOGETHER that they might be able to accomplish great things just the same.

Why? Three words – defense, defense, defense. Case in point; over the course of 4 straight wins to capture this past weekend’s BCS Tournament Championship Banner for only the 4th time in SC history, we scored a pedestrian average of 39 pts/game. Not bad, but nothing remarkable. But with that so-so offense we won our games by an average margin of 28 points.

What?! 28 points?! Meaning we only allowed 11 pts/game the whole tourney? That’s it?!

Yep. That’s it. That’s the story. This year’s defense is epic. I’ve never seen anything like it. Referees commend us. Opposing coaches compliment us. Opposing players, heck, they must curse us. Sacred Heart

44-17. Centennial Regional 38-5. BCS 40-9 in the Semi. ECS 34-15 in the Finals. I wish I could take credit, but this kind of consistent lockdown is less about X’s and O’s, and more about teammates 1) trusting the system, 2) trusting each other, and 3) working their tails off.

Just watch Rina, Brianna and Mya fly around the top, expending way more energy on defense than they do on offense. Listen to the communication between the players on the floor. See Chloe and Kenz block shots and dominate the defensive glass. Watch Kayla use her athletic sense to make yet another steal. See Marie-Ange’s, Alyssa’s and Jessica’s huge improvement in their own end. See all 5, arms extended, being big, being HUGE, being smart, working TOGETHER to clog passing lanes, double-team, force tough shots, gang-rebound. To the casual fan, it doesn’t look like much. But to me and Coach Wolfe? Priceless.

I cannot be prouder of this team than I am right now. We lost our first game of the New Year 35-32 to LCC. Since then we’ve won 10 games in a row – including two this past Friday when the whole team was either sick, dead tired, or suffering shinsplints (14 airballs, anyone?) – with contributions from every single player. Yes, we’ve got some talent on this team, but the reason we’re on a roll right now is because we are playing better than the sum of our individual parts. Because every player is embracing her role on the team, and understands that it’s the accumulation of a million little things that add up to success.

What a run it’s been. But it’s not over, kids. Monday night home to LaRuche. Wednesday night home to College Sacre-Coeur, the #1 team in the RSEQ. And then Fri/Sat/Sun the most important tournament yet this year – the Anderson-Bailly.

We haven’t won the Bailly since that historic 2008 team. Can WE be historic?

(From the Stanstead College website, January 23rd)

Overtime Thriller at the Mackay!

This past Monday the Spartan faithful were treated to an old-fashioned barn-burner against LaRuche, a team that always gives us trouble. The last time we played them, at their house, we escaped with a sloppy 39-37 win. This time they wanted payback.

LaRuche came smoking out of the gate. A drive, a free throw, and back-to-back threes put the good gals in a 7-0 hole less than 90 seconds into the game. But the players settled down, got their bearings, and proceeded to do what they do best – put their opponents on lock. In a shutdown defensive performance, they held LaRuche scoreless(!) for the rest of the quarter, while pouring in 14 pts themselves spread amongst five different players. Just beautiful basketball, and the fans were loving it.

But LaRuche found their own defensive mojo in the 2nd quarter, limiting us to only 6 pts. Luckily we were still firing on all defensive cylinders and held them to 4 pts, giving us a comfortable 20-11 lead going into halftime. And when we extended the lead to 25-13 early in the 3rd, we were feeling pretty good about ourselves.

But LaRuche is well-coached, and they never give up. In an impressive display of hustle, 2nd chance points, and free throw shooting they hung a 13-0(!) run on us in the 3rd quarter, completely wiping out our big lead. The scoreboard read 31-30 for Stanstead as the 4th quarter got under way, and you could smell the barn start to smolder…

LaRuche hits a jumper to take the lead, then an offensive putback to go up by 3. Mackenzy answers with a hoop inside. LaRuche hits again to restore the 3-pt lead. Marie-Ange cuts it to one on another bucket in the paint. Kenz gets fouled on a strong move to the hoop, and hits one out of two. Tie game. Under a minute left. Then LaRuche, with our defense swarming all over them, nails a clutch jumper to take the lead. 45 seconds left. 30 seconds. 20. Maybe our last possession. LaRuche swarms Rina at the top, she drives, kicks out to Brianna, who drives, passes to Kenz who finds herself where she often finds herself, alone at the top of the key, defenders too scared to guard her too closely. Earlier in the year Kenz would hesitate here. Not this time. With her most confident jumper of the season, she rises up and buries the game-tying basket. The crowd goes nuts – what a super-clutch shot!

And now, three minutes of overtime.

Scoreless first minute. Kenz converts a perfect pass from Rina to take the lead. LaRuche answers. 40-40. A minute left. Sr Boys going insane on the sidelines, the gym louder than it’s been all season…40 seconds left and Chloe launches a three…all eyes in the gym track it…a hush falls over the crowd…and it swishes through! Super-clutch shot #2! The W. John Mackay Gymnasium explodes, the defense doesn’t allow a shot the rest of the way, and when the final horn sounds your Spartans have triumphed 43-40 in the most thrilling game of the year!

And that’s why you play the game, kids. For moments like that. Enjoy it, ladies!

(From the Stanstead College website, January 25th)

Slaying the Giant

To beat College Sacre-Coeur, perennially one of the top teams in all of Quebec, you’ve gotta play near-perfect basketball. And that’s what your Spartans did this past Wednesday.

Let’s pick it up at the start of the 3rd quarter, shall we? After a low-scoring 1st quarter and a high-scoring 2nd quarter, the scoreboard reads 19-18 for CSC. No team has led by more than 4 pts, and there have already been six lead changes in this back and forth affair.

The refs put the ball into play, and CSC strikes first blood. But Rina walks into a three at the top of the circle to tie it up at 21. The defense stiffens and pitches a shutout for the next two minutes. In that time Brianna drives from the left side for two, Rina hits another jumper, and Chloe splashes a three to put the Red & White up 28-21. Holy smokes, a 10-pt run!, and you can see the players, the coaches, and the faithful in the Mackay Gymnasium start to believe. We can really do this!

Sacre-Coeur stops the bleeding with a timely three, but Rina-Chloe-Brianna go on another run, this time 7 unanswered, and the good guys are now leading 35-24. But CSC isn’t going to go away quietly, and they score the last two buckets of the quarter to make it 35-28 to start the 4th quarter.

Here we go. Can we hang on? Sacre-Coeur’s all-world #10 scores a tough one inside. 35-30. Marie-Ange answers with her own basket in the paint. 37-30. CSC makes a hustle play and converts. 37-32.

And then the offense dries up for both teams. Your Spartans are locked in defensively, allowing very little space to their opponents. But on offense we’ve become predictable. CSC knows what we’re trying to do, and are intelligently taking it away. There’s tons of time for Sacre-Coeur to come back, and we’re getting no good looks, we’re getting nervous…

…until Rina Takahashi and Mackenzy St.-Pierre together make the Plays Of The GameTM – Kenz slips the high screen and Rina hits her perfectly down the lane for a layup, and then they do the exact same thing again the next play! Four straight backbreaking points, 41-32 lead, and when Chloe drains the dagger three it’s all over. A phenomenal, season-defining 45-35 victory against the best of the best!

! WOW !

(From the Stanstead College website)

Anderson-Bailly Tournament

The Bailly Small Schools Provincial Tournament. Storied. Historic.

And for the first time ever, Stanstead College was the clear favourite.

It’s different when you’re the prohibitive favourite. The expectations can weigh upon you. You’re supposed to win. If you don’t, you’ve failed. Underachieved. Underdog? That’s easy. Favourite? Not so much.

But then again, being the favourite means you’re darn good, which has its own advantages . Your Spartans came into the Bailly riding a 12-game win streak, featuring two tournament championships and, just two days earlier, a huge upset win over CSC. Darn good? Heck, was anyone in the Eastern Townships playing better, especially defensively? Could QHS, St. John’s, WIC, Richmond or BCS somehow find a way to stop the Red & White train from rolling its way to another Championship Banner?

Round-Robin Game #1 vs Quebec High School: We come out flat. No intensity. Flat-footed on defense, and running in mud on offense. It’s possible we’re tired from the unforgiving schedule of games we’ve had of late. It’s possible we’re overconfident. It’s possible we’re just basketballed out. Whatever the cause, we don’t look like the elite team we started thinking we were. But lucky for us the Blazers’ open shots don’t fall in the 1st half, while ours do, led by Brianna’s trio of three-pointers. 24-6 at half. But depending on jump shots alone is a dangerous way to play, as we prove in the 3rd quarter when we score a grand total of two(!) points. No deflections on defense to lead to fast breaks, no steals, no crisp ball movement, nothing inside – just a barrage of chucked jumpers that clank out for eight straight minutes. Ugh. We improve somewhat in the 4th quarter, but this 40-16 victory does not instill any confidence. If we continue to play like this, we could blow this golden opportunity to capture the Bailly Banner for the first time since 2008.

Round-Robin Game #2 vs St. John’s High School: Better on defense and loose balls, where we play quicker and hungrier. But even so we allow too many inside looks to the Knights, who are young and athletic but just can’t finish. 18-2 at half, but we still had yet to play with good energy. But the 3rd quarter sees us go inside successfully for the first time, with Mackenzy, Alyssa and Kayla combining for 12 pts, and that is the best thing we’ve done so far in the tournament – as we saw in the first game, jump shots are undependable, and when we play our best we play balanced, inside AND outside. Final score 42-10, and we’re on to the Semis.

SemiFinals vs West Island College: Much better energy. Best warmup so far – we’ve kept improving throughout the tourney. But this would be one of those games where the ball just won’t fall. Near miss after near miss, and you can see the Spartans’ frustration growing. But two players prove instrumental in the ultimate 38-16 victory. Firstly, Alyssa provides an offensive spark off the bench with 6 big pts inside. And secondly, Player Of The GameTM Rina Takahashi decides she’s had enough and just takes the game over. Like a pitbull on defense she attacks WIC’s guards, forces bad passes, makes deflections, and outright steals the ball whenever the WIC guards get too close to her. And that’s not all – after the steals she takes off on her own 1-man fast breaks, burning the last man back with her patented hesitation dribble, and finishes bee-yoo-tifully at the rim. 13 pts and 11(!) steals later, and Captain Takahashi had led her team to a berth in the Finals!

FINALS vs Quebec High School: In a rematch of our first round-robin game, on the biggest stage of the season, the Red & White put it all together and play their most complete, dominant game of the weekend. Defense. Defensive rebounding. Decision-making. Outside shooting. Offensive rebounding. Interior passing. On the big floor at BCS, in front of over a hundred spectators, your Spartans have it all goin’ on. The Splash Sisters, Brianna and Chloe, nail three 3’s apiece. When they miss, Kenz, Marie-Ange and Kayla outhustle the Blazers for countless offensive boards and extra possessions. Player Of The GameTM Mackenzy St.-Pierre pours in 14 1st-half points thanks to the best offensive rebounding day of her life. And defensively the players put on a clinic. I mean, the QHS coaching staff is as good as they come, and they throw the kitchen sink at us, but the Red & White repel every push, especially Kayla, Kenz, Marie-Ange and Chloe at the back of the D. 27-5 at the half, 47-15 final score, and Stanstead College proudly hoists that big beautiful yellow Bailly Banner for the 4th time in the tournament’s history.

Congratulations, ladies!

(From the Stanstead College website, January 31st)

No More Pink Socks

Well, The Streak is over. We lost our first game in January, won 16 in a row, then lost our last game in January. But it was fun while it lasted. What a ride!

As for why we lost this one? Well, if there are 10 things that a team has to do to win a basketball game, we did 9 of them well when we visited perennial powerhouse Triolet this past Tuesday. We spread their defense out with our shooters. Rina drove successfully when they DID spread out (a game-high 16 points). Mackenzy attacked inside and got fouled. We took good outside shots. We attacked the offensive glass (although not very successfully because, as Kayla said during one time-out, “geez, sir, they’re so BIG!”). We got back in transition. Our defensive rebounding was solid. And our defense was, for the most part, outstanding – clogged passing lanes, deflections, steals, the Spartans were doing what the Spartans do best, i.e. frustrate an opposing team so much that they give up trying to crack the code of our defense and just start chucking and chasing. In fact, by the end of the 3rd quarter we had only allowed 21 points to one of the top teams in the Eastern Townships. After 17 games in the past 17 days, this was a truly inspiring effort.

However, there is one thing that we did poorly on this day, i.e. we uncharacteristically went 1 for 15 on three pointers.

Sometimes the shots don’t drop no matter how well you shoot ‘em, and on this day, despite taking great shots, nothing would fall. Live by the three, and die by the three. And that explains the 37-32 loss. Simple as that.

But then again, maybe it was the pink socks that I had on because of our Winter Carnival’s Crazy Socks Day…you never know…not that I’m superstitious or anything…but yeah, come to think of it, that’s probably the real reason…no more crazy pink socks for this coach lemmetellyathatmuch… nothing but good ol’ fashioned black dress socks from now on for this guy…

(From the Stanstead College website, February 15th)

The Benefit of Rest

The last practice before this past February Break was our worst of the year. No energy. No intensity. 18 games in 18 days had worn us out. A 6-day getaway from the gym would hopefully be just what the doctor ordered.

So how would we do when our first day back was a tough away game against LaRuche, a team that we’d fought tooth and nail in our previous two meetings, both wins for us, but by a combined total of only 5 points? How would we react when the first time we touched a basketball in a week would be during warmup, against a team that was so hungry to beat us they were rallying their fans on social media to come watch?

Well, we did great, and we reacted amazingly! There was so much more bounce in our step, more zip, more passion, more enjoyment of this beautiful game. Six days off, and we came back not rusty, but reenergized.

And played maybe the best all-around basketball we’ve played. Against a team that plays fast and loves forcing you to think quick, our offensive decision-making was the best I’ve seen it. And when coupled with our consistently stingy defense, it was one of the funnest (yes, that’s a word!) games of the season .

Brianna, aka the LaRuche-killer (well, at least according to that server from Subway!), was deadly AGAIN from outside, nailing four(!) three-pointers.

Mackenzy not only helped Rina break the press, but on defense was an absolute Beast (runs in the family, I guess!), repeatedly pulling off a maneuver that we like to call “The Kenz”; i.e. face a player driving towards you, shift your body so that you don’t come close to fouling, cleanly block the shot, and then grab the blocked shot yourself. Honestly, she must have had six “Kenz’s” this game, and somehow made it look easy.

Chloe and Alyssa were a newfound Deadly Duo. Alyssa would work hard and intelligently to gain position and leverage inside, Chloe would find her with pinpoint passes, and Alyssa would finish beautifully. In fact, we put the game out of reach early in the 4th quarter when the Duo combined for an 11-0 run that made it a 20-point game and basically broke the will of our opponents.

Kayla, all 5’2” of her, looking like she might jump out of the gym at any moment, led the team with 14(!) rebounds, 10 of them defensive.

Mya was a rock, once again playing any position we asked her to, and once again making great decisions with the ball, including (finally!) an aggressive drive and finish at the rim.

And then there was Rina, who was on full video-game mode. I’ve seen her dribble well before, I’ve seen her make good decisions before, and I’ve seen her attack the key before, but I’ve never seen her finish at the rim like she did yesterday. It was a breathtaking display, and when coupled with all the other ways that your Spartans scored in this game (post moves, finger rolls, threes, pick n rolls, drive and dish, pull up jumpers), it must have left the LaRuche fans scratching their heads, wondering “how can we stop all these weapons?”.

I’ve never seen the ball go in like it went in yesterday, and man, was it fun to watch. A 37-point 2nd half on the way to a 58-36 victory against a damn good team. Incredible stuff, ladies. But you don’t get to rest for too long. Triolet on Friday.

And only 6 more days until the biggest event of the season – the McLeod Provincials.

(From the Stanstead College website, February 17th)

The Purity of Sport

Whenever I watch NCAA college basketball on TV, be it March Madness or just regular games during the season, it’s always exhilarating, and it always looks the same to me, i.e. two really good teams play great ball, talented players fight for every inch because nothing comes easy at such a high level, and the game gets decided at the end by who hit a few more shots that day, or who just happened to be ahead when the final horn sounded. It’s thrilling to watch. It’s competition at its purest. Young athletes, gifted but imperfect, striving with their teammates and coaches to overcome respected opponents who are every bit as good as they are, on a brightly lit stage where there’s no room to hide, and potential glory riding on every play.

Well, that’s what it felt like Friday night at The Mackay – what a great game!

In one corner: Triolet, #1 in the Eastern Townships, having beaten CSC twice in a row, coming off a huge tournament win, staking their claim as maybe the best Division 2 team in Quebec.

In the other corner: your Stanstead Spartans, in the midst of their own extraordinary season, 25-6, winners of 4 out of 5 tournaments, staking their claim as maybe the best basketball team in Stanstead College history.

It was like Syracuse vs Georgetown out there. Kentucky vs Louisville. Duke vs North Carolina.

No quarter asked for. None given. Superb defense by both sides. The ball flying around on offense. Everything contested. Every made basket a great play made under intense pressure.

Triolet up 21-13 at halftime, thanks to two banked-in three-pointers, but in games like this, you take what you can get. We play great in the 3rd, scoring 12 in the quarter, but every time we make a push Les Harfangs answer. Down 32-25 to start the 4th, but there is no reason for head-hanging. This game is far from over. Eight minutes is a long time. This is what sports should be, giving your all with no guarantee of success, only a guarantee of failure if you DON’T give your all.

Four minutes left, still down 38-28. Time for one last push. The defense somehow finds another level. Triolet can’t even get shots off. Offensively we push the pace, catch them off balance. 38-31. A deflection, a steal. An early pull-up jumper. 38-33. A forced turnover. A drive. Two free throws. 38-35. One minute left. A desperation heave, long rebound, a double-team, another steal, fast break, fouled. Hit one of two. Thirty seconds left. 38-36. Intense pressure defense, another turnover(!)…pushing forward on the break, 15 seconds left…an open three-pointer in transition, this would be for the win(!)…all eyes track the ball…

And it misses.

But even now, there is no give-up. We foul intelligently and extend the game, but ultimately we run out of time. 38-36 final score. A loss. Damn. But we learned something pretty important about ourselves. When it mattered the most, against one of the top teams in the province, your Spartans ended the game on an 8-0 run. When it mattered most, we found a way to score, and we held a great team scoreless for the last 4 minutes.

So yeah. A loss. But in every NCAA game between top-ranked rivals that I’ve ever watched, someone had to lose there, too. That doesn’t detract from the experience. That doesn’t diminish the purity of the game.

(From the Stanstead College website, February 21st)

SC vs Galt: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The Good

- Our jumpshooting was better

- Our free throw shooting was improved

- We pushed the pace and created early offense better than at any point this season. In fact, the pivotal stretch that iced the game was the first 2 minutes of the 3rd quarter, when Rina found Chloe for a transition three, pulled up for two herself the next time down, then fed Brianna early for another quick triple before Galt’s defense could set. A before-you-can-blink 8-0 run, a 28-7 lead, and it was pretty much over.

The Bad

- A contagious case of ‘butterfingers’. It seemed like every ball that touched our hands slid off. It was like we’d never caught a basketball before.

- Turnovers. The most turnovers we’ve had in a looonnng time, especially when the Pipers switched to a full court pressure man defense in the 4th quarter. We pride ourselves on getting a quality shot off every time down the floor. Not today.

The Ugly

- Overall intensity, which was terrible. From the first minute of warm-up the coaches could tell we weren’t 100% invested. We weren’t hungry enough. We were sluggish and flat-footed. It showed in our defense, which allowed way too many successful interior passes and open jump shots. It showed in our defensive rebounding. It showed in our non-existent offensive rebounding – ZERO 2nd chance points . It showed in the fact that Galt won over 80% of the loose balls. At this level, against an athletic, hardworking team, this is what happens when you’re not 100% focused and on your toes, i.e. you get outworked, out-toughed, and out-hustled. Make no mistake, the only reason we won this game was because of our talent. That, folks, is not Spartan basketball.

(From the Stanstead College website)

MacLeod Tournament

This past Thursday/Friday Stanstead College participated in the most historically significant event of the season; the A.A.E.S.Q. McLeod Provincials, a storied tournament that has been running for 64 years.

A tournament that your Spartans have never won.

Tournament History

1953 – 1985: Stanstead College fails to qualify for the McLeod Provincials.

1986: Stanstead qualifies, but loses both games at the McLeod Provincials.

1987 – 1998: Stanstead fails to qualify for the McLeod Provincials.

1999 & 2000: Stanstead qualifies, but loses both games.

2001: Stanstead loses the first game, but they win the next two games (the first wins ever for SC at the MacLeod) to take home the Consolation Banner.

2002: Megan Lill’s legendary team (34-6 season record) makes the Finals vs a powerful Massey-Vanier team. Despite leading by 13 at halftime, the Spartans ultimately lose 59-52. Silver Medals. Finalist Banner. Best ever result, but opportunity missed.

2003: Stanstead fails to qualify.

2004: Stanstead qualifies, loses both games.

2005 – 2007: Stanstead fails to qualify.

2008: Andrea Dumas’ epic team (25-4) maximizes its potential by capturing the Finalist Banner, losing in the Finals 59-37 to an unbeatable Centennial Regional team.

2009: Necola Guerrina’s historic team (28-6), #2-ranked going in, lose the Finals 64-46 to a juggernaut of a team from Shawinigan High School. Silver Medals again.

2010: Margarita Acero’s plucky team (20-10) overachieves, earning a Finals berth despite being ranked #6 going in, ultimately losing 55-33 to mighty Shawinigan. Three straight Finalist Banners.

2011 – 2013 Stanstead qualifies each year, but goes winless three years in a row.

2014 – 2016 Stanstead qualifies each year, finishes with 1 win vs 2 losses three years in a row.

2017 Stanstead College not only qualifies, but enters the MacLeod Provincials, for the first time in SC history, as the #1-ranked team…

Four months ago I looked at this team, looked at the experience, the basketball IQ, the sheer talent, and fearlessly (rashly? foolishly?) decided to put our eggs in one basket. League performance? Unimportant. Tournaments that our school had already won before? Not the point. The priority would be the MacLeod. If Stanstead was ever going to grab this brass ring, it had to be this year. Of our nine players, six were graduating. And who knew if we’d ever be this strong again? It was now or never.

So everything we did all season long was with this goal in mind. Every practice, every strategic change. Along the way, we racked up accomplishments. We beat CSC. We won our own SIT. The 16-game win streak. The MIS, BCS Invitational and Bailly championships back-to-back-to-back in 3 consecutive, crazy weekends. All quite impressive. But I was willing to trade it all for that big, beautiful yellow MacLeod Banner.

Oh, and one more thing. If we prevailed at the MacLeod, this team would go down as the most successful basketball team in Stanstead College history. Better than Necola Guerrina’s 2009 team. Better than Andrea Dumas’ 2008 team. Better, even, than Megan Lill’s 2002 team. This year’s group of young women had an opportunity to make Stanstead College history.

No pressure .

Round-Robin Games #1 & #2, and Semifinals

I group these games together because they were all so similar. Our tough season, our challenging schedule, the high-calibre RSEQ Division 2 League, all of it had tempered us, made us too strong for all but the best teams in the province, especially defensively. 45-15 vs Heritage. 63-13 vs Centennial Regional. 46-11 vs Quebec High. An average of 13 pts allowed per game. Barely over 3 pts allowed per quarter. Our road to the Finals had been smooth, but standing in our way would be a team that also plays RSEQ Division 2, a team that plays as fast as we do, a team that was not intimidated in the least.

MacLeod Finals vs Notre-Dame de Lourdes

1st Quarter

It does not take long to see this is a bad matchup for us. NDL loves full court pressure. They have active hands and are athletic on defense. They turn the game into a chaotic track meet. And offensively they chuck the first three-pointer they see and crash hard for rebounds, which is probably the safest thing to do against our stingy zone. This is not good.

Also not good – the girls are actually TOO amped up, too intense. You can see it in our 1st quarter defense, frantic instead of fast, hyper instead of disciplined. It puts us in early foul trouble, with Rina and Brianna picking up 2 fouls each in the first 5 minutes.

Not Good Thing #3: the basketball gods seem to be against us. NDL’s first shot is a banked-in triple, a theme that runs throughout the game. Our shots rim out, while theirs find a way in. All the close referee calls, all the bounces, seem to go NDL’s way. Some games are like this, it happens, but does it have to happen in the MacLeod Finals?!

Down 10-4 midway through the 1st . The fact that everything seems to be going wrong gets to us. We panic against the pressure, we turn the ball over, we shoot too fast, too desperately. But thankfully we settle down defensively in the last 2 minutes, and go on a Rina-led 9-2 run to close the quarter up 13-12.

2nd Quarter

Starts great when we calmly break the press and Chloe and Rina score to make it 17-12. But NDL promptly banks in another three (seriously?), which rattles us again. More turnovers, poor offensive possessions, and our opponents make us pay with a 9-0 run. Down 24-19 now, and fighting the panic that wants to take hold. And then disaster strikes. Rina picks up her 3rd foul on a truly terrible blocking call, and has to sit the rest of the half. This may well be the final straw – what else can go wrong?!

But this is where our depth and experience pay off. Without Rina to break the press, Chloe becomes the inbounder, and starts finding Brianna, and/or Mya, and/or Kenz, to bring up the ball. It works well and we close the gap, thanks to Marie-Ange’s bucket inside and Mya’s coast to coast runner. Down 27-26 at halftime. Looks like we got ourselves a barn-burner. This is going to go down to the wire.

3rd Quarter

NDL draws first blood, 4 quick points, and then disaster strikes AGAIN. Only 2 minutes in, Rina dribbles through the press, drives the lane and gets called for a charge! 4th foul. I have to sub her off the rest of the 3rd. The pro-Stanstead crowd – stunned. Her teammates – unnerved. Rina – in tears behind the bench. NDL – visibly ecstatic, and they go for the jugular. They hit a three, and then a circus-shot two to extend to 36-26.

This is The Moment. The one I will remember for the rest of my life. Do we fold, right now when things are bleakest? Or do we find a way to rise up together? Well, dear readers, I have never been more PROUD of a team than I am of this team, because somehow, facing the most adversity they’ve faced all season, in the biggest moment, these young athletes got up off the mat and ROSE UP TOGETHER. Broke the press. Started chipping away. Free throws by Kenz, Chloe and Marie-Ange. Lockdown defense. A huge three by Bree. The 3rd quarter horn blows. We’re still down 38-33, but we’d just taken the best punch NDL (and the basketball gods) could dish out. And we were still here.

4th Quarter

Rina checks back in, one foul away from her MacLeod being over. And coolly steps into a picture-perfect pullup. 35-38. 25 seconds later Brianna nails a long two. 37-38. A Rina free throw ties it. We’ve come all the way back!

Up and down for the next 4 minutes, a bit of a blur for me to be honest, I vaguely remember another Bree-Three, a Rina layup, and some clutch free throw shooting from Kenz. 47-44 for us. One minute left. And then Alyssa MacPherson gets fouled inside. Her first free throw goes long…but bounces high and in! And then her 2nd free throw is ice-in-the-veins pure! 49-44, and we’re beginning to believe. But on their next possession NDL’s #7 impressively splashes a long three. 49-47. 30 seconds left. We break the press, get into our halfcourt set, and with the most important pass of her life Rina finds Alyssa under the hoop for a layup and a 4-pt lead! 15 seconds left. Last chance for NDL. Their #20 launches a three, from my spot on the bench it’s right on line, but it’s front rim! We grab the rebound, and then my memory gets a little fuzzy…the next thing I recall is the final buzzer sounding, players jumping/celebrating/hugging…the scoreboard reads 52-47, the crowd is cheering…girls are crying tears of joy…“one cheer for Stanstead Hip Hip HOORAY!” … handshake line…medals & photos…team supper, Score’s spare ribs…happiness…surreal, dazed…did I mention happiness?

I realized something this past Sunday, once my brain started working again. I realized there are names throughout SC Girls Basketball history that I often reference, that will always echo down through the years, thanks to their commitment, their attitude, their talent, and their success. Lill. Wright. Wilson. Gulliver. Dumas. Guerrina. Acero.

Time to add some new names.

Daigle. Grapes. Langevin. Loiselle. MacPherson. Ouellet.

Ramirez. St.-Pierre. Takahashi. Tesson. Van Dyke.

Years from now these will be the names talked about over late supper in the Dining hall, while shooting around in the gym, when reading the Big Red Board, at Alumni events. It will be these names that are brought up when the next Spartans team approaches the loftiest of heights.

That’s what happens when you make History.

(From the Record, March 1st)