Novice Hoopsters Claim Gold At Provincial Championships

The Madness of March carried over into the April 1-3 weekend for the Chatham-Kent Wildcats Novice U10 Girls Basketball team as they played in the Ontario Cup in London, Ontario.

The team was ranked 11th in the province and placed in Division 2 for the Weekend. Division 2 included team ranked 9th -16th in the Province. The girls played three hard fought games in the Round Robin. They won their opening game against the host London Ramblers in a 23-18 win on Friday night. This game was followed up by a 30 – 27 overtime thriller versus North Toronto Basketball and a 23-16 win versus the Huron Lakers of Sarnia on Saturday.

During all three games the team displayed great team defence, intense play and timely scoring. The three wins gave the Wildcats first place in their pool and a place in the Gold Medal Championship on Sunday.

The intense play and great team defence that carried the Wildcats in the round robin continued into Sunday’s final versus the undefeated Waterloo Royal City Wolverines. An enthusiastic capacity crowd of supporters for both the Wolverines and Wildcats energized the gym at Fanshawe College. All spectators were treated to another thriller as once again the Wildcats forced overtime.

The Wildcats found themselves down again in overtime before roaring back to take the lead with less than a minute in OT. The Wildcats claimed a 34-29 victory and a well deserved Gold Medal.

The win capped off a special year for the team which consisted of five veteran players returning from last season’s Division 5 Gold Medal Team and seven girls new to the travel basketball program. The win places the Wildcats 9th amongst all Novice teams in Ontario.

Pictured Above: L/R – Coach Murray Hunt, Olivia Corbin, Quinn Stoner, Sawyer North, Addison Lambkin, Bridget Hunt, Megan Beselaere, Avery Krouse, Olivia Bugros, Campbell Phaneuf, Faith Heyink, Cassandra Newcombe, Elizabeth Newcombe, Assistant Coach John Krouse.