Story by Jeff Gard/Total Sports Quinte
With a sweep of the Bay of Quinte championship doubleheader at Loyalist College, both the junior and senior girls basketball teams at Centennial Secondary School are headed to their respective Central Ontario Secondary School Athletics tournaments this week.
In senior action, the Centennial Chargers followed up an undefeated 9-0 regular season with a 49-23 semifinal win over Bayside Secondary School on Tuesday, Nov. 8 and then a 60-34 victory over Nicholson Catholic College on Thursday.
In addition to their strong regular season results, the senior Chargers also captured gold at tournaments hosted in Peterborough, by Adam Scott Collegiate, and Renfrew (the Girls Playoff Primer). They also claimed the silver medal at a tournament hosted by La Salle Secondary School in Kingston.
“We have a small team of only nine players, but they work very well together,” said Maren Edgett, who coaches the team with Liane Woodley. “Going to these three tournaments has helped the girls learn to work together better. We played Nicholson five times this year as we often attended the same tournaments. They were definitely the hardest team to beat.”
This Thursday, the senior Chargers travel to Peterborough for the COSSA ‘AA’ championships, including a semifinal match-up against Adam Scott at 11:30 a.m. The winner will advance to the 3:30 p.m. final against the winner of the other semifinal between Belleville’s Eastside Secondary School and Peterborough’s Crestwood Secondary School.
Centennial’s junior Chargers, after defeating Bayside in the semifinals two days earlier, pulled out a 23-19 victory over Eastside Secondary School in the their Bay of Quinte final.
Drew Davidson, who coaches the team with Bridget Tancredi and Hayley Davies, said the Chargers’ success this season is the result of putting the time in at practice to improve shooting and ball handling and playing as a team.
“Keys to winning the final were playing good team defence, moving without the ball on offence and making some free throws, especially in the fourth quarter,” he added.
Bayside Secondary School and St. Theresa Catholic Secondary School will host junior and senior COSSA championships Thursday.
In junior play at 10 a.m., Centennial will take on Lindsay’s I.E. Weldon at St. Theresa and Bayside will host St. Peter. The winners will meet in the 2 p.m. final at St. Theresa.
Meanwhile, in the senior semifinals at 11:30 a.m., Bayside will play host to Cobourg Collegiate Institute at Bayside and St. Theresa will host I.E. Weldon. The championship game is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. at St. Theresa.
Belleville will also be represented at the COSSA ‘AA’ junior tournament in Peterborough as Eastside will take on the Crestwood Mustangs in one semifinal and St. Theresa will face the Adam Scott. The winners will meet in the final.
