The U16 Girls, seeded # 7, opened the Ontario Cup on Friday May 3 in Ottawa against the #3 seed Toronto Triple Threat. Playing great defence but struggling offensively the Hurricanes trailed 20 – 13 after one half. The second half was very one sided with Triple Threat prevailing 52 – 27. Grace Kujala (10 points) lead Huntsville in scoring with Jenna Gill (7) and Lauryn Oliver (6) chipping in.
Saturday morning had the U16 Girls playing a must win game against Belleville White who had beat them by 24 points last month. A solid first half had the Hurricanes trailing 18 – 11. Huntsville started to lock down defensively and took the lead against the Spirit. The last four minutes of the game saw the #2 seed take over and win 35 to 30 with the Hurricanes making only 4 of 19 free throws. Piper Long (9), Oliver (5), Hayley Smits (4) and Kujala (4) lead the team in scoring.
With the Hurricanes eliminated from the medal round they played the GladiatorS (#6) from Toronto to try and get to the 5th place game. Starting slow offensively for the third time they trailed 20 to 10 at half time and 24 – 15 after three quarters. Playing their most experienced guards as a unit and pressing full court for the entire fourth quarter the Hurricanes prevailed 32 - 29. Long scored all of her 10 points in the fourth quarter, including 3 of 4 from the free throw line, and Oliver (7) and Smits (6) helped the Hurricanes advance.
Sunday morning the U16 Girls had a rematch against the Toronto Lords from early March. Consistently the Hurricanes started slow trailing by 9 at the half and by 6 after three quarters. Huntsville again went small and played full court pressure and dominated the quarter with 20 points and winning 42 – 37 in Assistant Coach Carl Nelson’s last game in a 44 year career, 28 with the Hurricanes. Long scored 9 of her 15 points in the fourth quarter, McKenna Allen made of 7 of 10 free throws and scored 11 with Oliver (9) and Kujala (5) leading the team in scoring.
All twelve players contributed to the season with massive individual improvement for a very young team most of whom can play U16 again next year, including Jasmine Richardson, Sydney Flynn, Braunwyn Clement, Katlyn Maw, Eliana Zykstra and Grace Mitchell.
The Hurricanes will celebrate the end of their season (8 wins, 19 losses) at the year-end club Pizza Party on May 14th at the Active Living Centre.
