The Centre Wellington District High School (CWDHS) Falcons girls basketball team travelled to Waterloo-Oxford District High School recently to compete in its first pre-season tournament.
The girls were short handed and played their first game under a new head coach. The young Falcon women came out playing on all cylinders against a team from Preston High School in Cambridge.
The Falcons showed no sign of nerves, going up 29-6 at half. The Falcons kept pressing the Panthers in the second half with strong shut-down defense by Jenna Lindhorst and Chloe Humber.
The addition of Taylor Luther at half helped the girls finish off the Panthers 43-16, for their first win of the season.
The Falcons were led by Chloe Trapp, Kristen Gara and Maddie Fennell, who scored 20, 9 and 8 points respectively.
In the second game of the two-day tournament, the girls got matched up against an equally short handed Resurrection Crusaders team from Kitchener/Waterloo. Coach Steven Dow said the girls showed they were not afraid to compete with a bigger and more physical team.
The return of Kayla Teeter from injury seemed to allow the girls to use their creativity to find open shots and end the half tied at 19. The second half proved that the team still had some work to do as the Falcon offense slowed, but was led by Gara, with a team high 12 points.
The Falcons advanced to play the hosts Waterloo-Oxford in the tournament championship game. The short bench and limited practice time seemed to show, as the Falcons seemed to lose their wings going down 26-10 at half. The girls did find one thing in the game that had been missing.
The Falcon defense returned to limit the high-flying Crusader offence to four points in the fourth quarter. The strong defense was anchored around Rachel O’Brien and the swift hands of Nicki Sinkner.
The Falcons ended up falling 41-14 to the tournament champions, Waterloo-Oxford.
The teams leading scorer was again Gara, with five points.
“The coaching staff and I are extremely thrilled with the effort and growth we saw this weekend. The girls went from a group of athletes that did not even know if they would have a team, to a force to be reckoned with,” said coach Dow.
“Each one of the girls stepped up at one point or another to help the team with their individual strengths. We as a team still have a lot to work towards with our new offense and gaining chemistry, but regardless, today was fun to watch…
“I see many areas I need to work with these girls to fix some holes but the girls proved they are stronger than any of us had expected.”
The Falcons began their District 10 regular season on Sept. 17.
