The Wallaceburg Tartans Senior Girls Basketball team recently competed at the ‘AA’ OFSSAA championships held in Kingsville.
The girls placed 4th out of the 18 teams in the tournament, some of which were from bigger communities, such as Toronto, Eden (St. Catherine’s), Oakville, and Kingston.
“The girls play a lot of basketball throughout the year, not only high school but the Air Hawks program and other clubs,” said Janine Day, head coach of the Tartans, “It keeps the girls in shape throughout the year to compete with large urban centres.”
On Thursday, the #3 ranked Tartans claimed their first victim on their OFSSAA tear, beating #18 ranked Francis Liberman, 74-21. Sawyer Fischer led the way with 13 points.
On Friday, the Tartans battled with #8 ranked Eden.
The Tartans were able to slip away with a 42-34 victory. Brett Fischer led the way with 13 points.
Later on that day, Wallaceburg once again found another formidable opponent squaring off against the #12 ranked La Salle. They squeezed out a 43-38 victory in another close match-up. Sawyer Fischer once again led the Tartans with 14 points.
On Saturday, The Tartans faced off in the semi-final against the #2 ranked Kings Christian. The Kings were able to beat the Tartans 62-38 and advance to the gold medal final, while the Tartans were off the bronze medal game.
Brett Fischer scored 9 points in the loss.
In the bronze medal match-up, Wallaceburg met #5 ranked Leacock High School. The Tartans fought hard, but we unable to secure a victory over the tough Leacock team, eventually losing 49-33.
Brett Fischer scored a game-high 16 points for the Tartans.
“We take the experience of playing teams at a high level,” Day said. “How important it is to train year round, as well as the experience of playing games that have a lot at stake.”
King’s Christian ended up beating the #1 ranked Timmins Theriault squad 65-46 in the gold-medal game.
Day said knew how important it would be to keep her players healthy.
“We talked about eating healthy, getting lots of rest, and most importantly hydration,” Day said. “We watched other teams and did team activities to keep the girls focused and in a basketball mindset.”
The Tartans will be traveling to the Bahamas’ next week to compete in the Sand Jam Tournament.
They will be playing teams from all over the United States such as Georgia, Kentucky, and Texas.
The Tartans will be playing in the same venue where the NCAA basketball tournament is held. They will also be participating in numerous activities throughout their stay.
“We are going into the unknown,” Day said. “We have no idea what to expect. We are going to there to show the girls what basketball is like outside of Wallaceburg and to show them basketball at its highest stage.”
Day said the Tartans would like to thank everyone from the community who has helped them throughout their season.
– Story by Zac Nicholson
– Photo from Facebook
