Juvenile Chatham-Kent Wildcats Narrowly Miss Gold
The Chatham-Kent Wildcats Juvenile Girls team travelled up the 401 to London for there first tournament of the year. After winning their way through the early stages of the tournament, the team narrowly missed a gold medal, dropping the final to Blessed Sacrament.
The Wildcats struggled in the opening quarter of the tournament falling behind 11-9 to IEM Newmarket on Friday the 13th.They got their legs under them however as the second quarter got underway, pulling out a lead at half of 26-17. After 3 quartersm, Chatham-Kent still held the lead 37-29. When the final buzzer went, the Chatham-Kent Wildcats won 53-33.
The CK girls played the first game Saturday morning against the host London Gold Medal. For the second straight game the Wildcats struggled in the first quarter but held the lead 8-7. At the half, Chatham-Kent was winning 23-17. In the second half the Wildcats took control and the score after 3 was 34-20 before pushing the final score to 46-26.
In the quarter final game the Chatham-Kent Wildcats played the Tecumseh Saints who they beat by 8 in a one day event prior to Christmas. For the third game in a row the girls came out slow in the first and fell behind 16-12. In the second they decided to play some ball and came out with a 26-21 halftime lead. The third quarter was a back and forth game and the Saints came out ahead 35-34. In the fourth CK got dominated until late in the game. After calling a timeout with 1:30 left to play and down 49-41, the Chatham-Kent girls came out flying, scoring 6-points in 25 seconds to pull within 2. After a Tecumseh timeout, CK stole the ball again and tied it up 49-49. After Tecumseh hit a foul shot to regain a 1-point lead, Tamara Gamble lobbed a pass over the top to Emily Pepper for a layup to put the Wildcats up 51-50. CK would add another basket with seconds to go to win the game 53-50.
The win booked Chatham-Kent’s ticket to the semi-finals to face Newman Youth/Stoney Creek. This game looked to be a punishing game on both ends. The Wildcats came out slow again but held the lead 11-9 after the first quarter. At half Chatham-Kent had increased their lead slightly to 23-18. When the buzzer sounded the Wildcats won 44-34 to play for the gold medal.
Going up against Blessed Sacrament-Tatti in the final, a top three team in the age group, the Chatham-Kent Wildcats were in tough. They came out strong to take a 20-4 lead but the Wildcats never stopped playing which surprised their opponent. The Chatham-kent girls battled back and went in to the half trailing only 33-28. Blessed Sacrament was too strong in the second half however, pulling away for an eventual 75-55 win over the Chatham-Kent Wildcats.
The gold medal game loss was the first of the season for the Juvenile Chatham-Kent Wildcats who now sit with a season record of 6-1.