Orillia Secondary School’s (OSS) junior girls basketball team suffered its first defeat of the season Saturday night, and it was a big one.
The Nighthawks were taking on the Frontenac Secondary School Falcons in the junior finals of the Blackball Classic at OSS.
Orillia started the game on the right foot, opening the scoring with a three-pointer. That’s the only time the home squad enjoyed a lead against their rivals from Kingston.
The Nighthawks kept it close for most of the game, trailing 13-10 after the first quarter, 24-22 at the half and 30-28 at the end of the third. In the fourth, particularly in the final minutes, the Falcons soared and out-paced their rivals to secure a 48-33 victory and claim the title.
“They kept their intensity high. We worked hard, but we weren’t strong enough,” said Ally Smith, 14, a speedy point guard with OSS. “We could’ve come out stronger and maybe moved the ball a bit more. We’ve beat (the Falcons) before, so we will come back stronger.”
Coach Mike Tutty praised the girls’ effort, but acknowledged his team was outplayed in many ways.
“We were out-coached, we were out-prepared, we were out-executed and they played better as a team than we did,” he said. “When we executed, things were good, but we had periods of time when we weren’t all on the same page. As a result, we had trouble scoring.”
This year’s junior Nighthawks team is made up of an unusually high number of Grade 9 students. Nine of the first-year high schoolers are on a team with four Grade 10 students. That’s a result of OSS allowing, for the first time, its Grade 10 athletes to play on either the junior or senior squad.
“The message in the locker room was, ‘We are going to be a better team in four years because of that loss,’” Tutty said. “We want to face the tougher teams. It’s about the experience.”
Smith is among the team’s Grade 9 contingent and she enjoyed her first Blackball experience.
“It was really cool that we got to play in our home gym,” she said. “The energy was really high.”
The junior Nighthawks went 3-1 during the tournament and they are now 11-1 on the season.
The Patrick Fogarty Catholic Secondary School Flames also had a good weekend, but narrowly lost to Sacred Heart in the bronze-medal match.
In senior girls' action, the Frontenacs made it a Kingston sweep as they beat Dundas Valley in the title game.
OSS earned a dramatic four-point victory over St. Joe's (Barrie) to capture the bronze medal in the senior girls' draw.
