HS Basketball
Tigers down east end rivals to win junior girls hoops crown
By Mike Beasley
The Orleans Star

The phrase, ‘it’s not how you start that matters but how you finish” has never been more true for the St. Matthew junior girls’ basketball team.

The St. Matthew Tigers and the St. Peter Knights, two Orléans high school rivals, met up in the Tigers Den on Thursday, Nov. 8 for the Tier 1 junior girls basketball championship.

(L to r) Zoe Stow, Tatiana Smith, Celine Mbele, Gia Aoude, Brianna Brunet, Shannon Scullion, Robyn Edwards and Sarah Leslie pose with the junior girls Tier 1 championship trophy. PHOTO COURTESY OF NELLY YOUSUFZAI

Things looked pretty bleak for the Tigers in the early going as they struggled to put points on the board due to some poor shooting and shabby rebound control. But as the game progressed, St. Matthew slowly found their game and with the help of home court advantage and the pro-Tigers crowd they ended up edging St. Peter 42-38.

From the opening tip-off, the Tigers looked a bit shocked as the Knights built up a 12-0 lead in a dominating first quarter performance.

“We even went down 14-2 and couldn’t get any shots to go in,” admitted Rick Despatie, the victorious St. Matthew head coach. “We got away from our game of quick passing and fast breaks which led to some nervousness but the girls continued to work hard and came back in the second half for the win.”

The Tigers were able to narrow the gap to 15-8 by half-time thanks to pair of late baskets by Celine Mbele and Robyn Edwards.

The game turned in the Tigers favour in the third quarter when they managed to outscore the Knights 18-6 to take a 26-24 lead with the most entertaining portion of the game to be played.

The final eight minutes of action was fast and furious with both teams racing up and down the court draining shots from every possible angle. With each passing second, St. Matthews started to gain more confidence and rode the torrid shooting of Shannon Scullion who ended up scoring a game high 25 points.

The girl was on a mission as she took control of the ball and executed time after time after time.

“As the game went along I became more comfortable with the ball and felt confident every time I shot,” said a beaming Scullion amid the post-game celebration. “At half time we spoke about being calm for the remainder of the game and make them mess up, we just came out harder and better than they did which enabled us to win.”

Besides Scullion’s 25 point output, Gina Aoude scored seven points for the Tigers, while Mbele added a pair of baskets and Edwards and Tatiana Smith scored two points each.

The Knights were led by Paige R. who scored 19 points, including five three-point shots. One of the keys to the Tigers being able to turn the tide in the second half was their ability to cool off the hot-shooting Knight who scored 16 of her 19 points in the first two quarters including three straight three-point shots. She only scored three points after the half-time. all of which came on a trio of foul shots.

(Posted Nov. 19, 2018.)