Senior Girls Basketball
'Loaded' Louis Riel team cruises to victory in
Tier 1 city championship
By Fred Sherwin
Orléans Online

Kristy McGregor-Bales tries to take the ball around Katrina Eyre during the NCSSAA Tier 1 senior girls basketball championship on Tuesday. Fred Sherwin/Photo

Coming into this season the Louis Riel Rebelles senior girls basketball team set two goals for themselves, defend the Tier 1 city championship and put themselves in position to contend for the gold medal at OFSAA.

Mission one accomplished. The Rebelles successfully defended their Tier 1 city championship on Tuesday with a 40-point win over the St. Matthew Tigers on Tuesday.

They don't come much more lopsided than the Rebelles' 63-23 drubbing of the Tigers.

Probably the most telling stat of the game was the turnover differential. The Tigers turned the ball over 37 times compared to just 10 for the Rebelles. As a result the Rebelles put out up nearly twice as many shots as the Tigers.

Being outshot can sometimes be overcome, but not when you only make 25 per cent of your shots and your opponents are shooting close to 50 per cent.

The fact of the matter is that the Tigers were outmanned, over-matched and totally outplayed by a team that has two national level players on their roster in Kellie Ring and Micaella Riche, and a third player, Emilie Vachon, who recently signed a scholarship to play at Binghamton University next year.

After seeing his team suffer one the most lopsided defeats in a Tier 1 city championship in recent memory, Tigers head coach Rick Despatie admitted they were never in the game.

"I knew that it was going to be a tall order, but I didn't think it was going to be that bad. They have three provincial players and two national team members. What do you do with that? How do you combat a team that loaded," Despatie asked rhetorically.

After scoring the game's first basket, it was all downhill for the Tigers who quickly fell behind 11-2 after they turned the ball over five times on their next eight touches.

The Rebelles capitalized on the Tigers propensity to throw the ball away by putting together runs of 12-0 and 10-0 to take a 35-8 half-time lead.

After St. Matt's scored the opening basket of the second half, the Rebelles went on another 10-0 run to put the game completely out of reach.

Francesca Bellehumeur-Moya led the way offensively for the defending champs with 20 points. She also had five takeaways on defence. Vachon added 18 points, including a par of three point baskets, and Riche scored 14 points while hauling down eight rebounds. All three girls will be graduating this year along with Idill Hussein and Virginie Giorgetti.

With their second city championship tucked safely under their belts, the Rebelles can now turn their attention to the OFSAA provincial championships where they have their sights set on a medal.

"We finished fourth last year, but we weren't expecting to be there so it was a pretty good result," says Riche, who recently signed a scholarship to play Division 1 basketball at the University of Minnesota next year.

This year, the Rebelles hope to win it all and add a provincial basketball championship to the soccer title they won last year. If they do win the gold medal, they'll become the first francophone school in Ontario to accomplish the feat.

While the Rebelles are hoping to ride their winning streak all the way to the provincial championship, the Tigers must put Tuesday's loss behind them and focus on the provincial Quad-A championships which get underway in Hamilton next week.

Despatie says putting the loss behind them shouldn't be a problem, going deep in the Quad-A championships, however, could be a little more problematic.

"It's not going to be easy, but I don't think we'll face another team like these guys," said Despatie, giving a nod to the Rebelles.

(Posted 7:30 p.m., Nov. 18)

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