Senior Girls Football
Lady Rebelles capture provincial AAA basketball championship
By Fred Sherwin
Orléans Online

The Louis-Riel Rebelles have won the OFSAA AAA senior girls basketball championship after downing the top seed General Amherst Generals 51-49 in the gold medal game in London on Saturday.

The Rebelles went into the tournament looking to improve on the silver medal they won last year. With many of the same players in this year's lineup including national team members Micaela Riché and Emilie Vachon, the Rebelles jumped out to 20-9 lead after the first quarter. The great start would prove to be the difference in the game.

General Amherst narrowed the Rebelles' lead to three points with a terrific second quarter and at halftime the score was 29-26 in favour of Louis-Riel.

Both teams stepped up their defensive play in the third stanza, and at the end of three quarters Louis-Riel was still holding on to a three point lead.

General Amherst would eventually jump out to a four point lead thanks to a
9-2 run to start the fourth quarter.

Down 44-40 with 4:17 left in the game, the Rebels managed to fight back to tie the score and then took a three-point lead thanks to bomb from beyond the arc by Francesca Bellehumeur-Mora.

Louis-Riel extended their lead to 49-44 before the Generals finally stopped the bleeding with a three point bomb of their own. From there the game boiled down to a free throw shooting contest, as the Generals sent a steady stream of Rebelles to the foul line.

Despite going 2-for-8 from the free throw line in the final minute and a half, the Rebelles did a superb job disrupting the Generals' offensive and preventing them from getting any open looks. By the time they finally did get a basket, there were less than three clicks left on the clock.

As the final seconds ticked away, the realization of being the first francophone school to win the senior girls AAA provincial championship began to set in.

Vachon and Bellehumeur-Mora led the way for the Rebelles with 20 and 16 points respectively, while Riché added 13.

It was a nerve-wracking final few minutes for Rebelles head coach Andre Desjardins who thought about calling a timeout when the Generals took a
44-40, but then changed his mind..

"They're an experienced group of girls so we decided to just let them work it out themselves. I was a little nervous (down the stretch) but the girls came through," said Desjardins.

This is the third OFSAA championship in the last 10 months for Louis-Riel. The senior girls soccer team won the AAA championship last June and the girls hockey team won the OFSAA AA championship in January.

The Louis-Riel Rebelles rioster is made up of Emilie Vachon, Idil Hussein, Renee Legault, Noemie Bellehumeur-Moya, Kristy MacGregor-Bales, Alexie Morin-Holland, Virginie Giorgetti, Kellie Ring, Francesca Bellehumeur-Moya, Deborah Agette-Chery, Micaella Riche, Vicky Savard and Daphnee Michel.

The Louis-Riel Rebelles pose for a team picture with the championship trophy after winning the OFSAA senior girls AAA basketball crown on Saturday. Fred Sherwin/Photo

(Posted 11:30 a.m., Nov. 29)

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