The Huntsville Hurricane U19 Girls travelled to Queen's University in Kingston for the 2022 Ontario Cup. The Hurricanes started the year ranked in Division 6 (of 6 divisions) but qualified as the 6th seed of 8 teams in Division 3. The format is a round robin with seeds 2, 3, 6 and 7 playing off with cross over games for final ranking on Sunday.
Friday night say the U19 Girls take on the second seed Oakville Venom. The Hurricanes were dominant from the start and after giving up a successful three point shot on the opening possession leapt out to a commanding 30 - 5 halftime lead. When the game wrapped up Huntsville had notched their first win of the tournament 52 - 34. Lauryn Oliver (14 points), Riley Truax (10), Jenna Gill (8) and Adrienne Moffat (8) led the team in scoring with 8 of the 10 players scoring in the game.
Saturday afternoon had the Hurricanes take on the third seed Guelph Gryphons. The start was sluggish as the Gryphons came with more energy after their opening game loss to Tecumseh and saw the Hurricanes with small lead 23 - 20. The Hurricanes dominated the second half and won going away 60 - 37. Oliver (21 points), Truax (20) and Gill (8) again lead the team in scoring with 7 of the 10 players hitting hte scoresheet. Oliver also lead the team with a very impressive 14 rebounds.
Saturday evenings game was held in a blistering heat as the air conditioning in the gym had been off all weekend and with this the 12 game in 24 hours the heat and humidity had slowly built to an incredibly difficult level. The winner of the game versus number seven seed Tecumseh (Windsor) would advance to the gold medal game with the loser to play in the bronze medal game. Huntsville lead by 1 after one quarter and had pulled ahead by 9 at halftime. The game went back and forth with Huntsville leading by 6 in the final two minutes. Giving up two 3 point shots in the last 90 seconds and some turnovers in that time frame had the game headed to overtime. The Hurricanes ran out of energy in the four minute overtime and lost 68 - 60 to the eventual gold medal winning team. Oliver (25), Truax (8(, Moffat (7) and Grace Mitchell (7) lead the team in scoring with Oliver (12) and Moffat (6) leading the team in rebounding.
The bronze medal game on Sunday afternoon was battle with the Halton Huskies who can come second in pool A. Huntsville had trouble making shots and trailed by 8 at halftime and by 11 halfway through the third quarter A passioned plea by the coaching staff to not give up and try cut the lead in half by the end of the quarter seemed to spark a resurgence in energy and they trailed by 7 points with only 8 minutes to go. The fourth quarter saw an explosion of energy and in less than 4 minutes the Hurricanes were ahead by 3 points. Back and forth the score see sawed for the rest of the game. Despite having her worst shooting game of the season Truax hit a huge 3 pointer to tie the game in the last mintues and sealed the game with two free throws in the final seconds. Oliver (27) had another incredible game socring with Truax (11) and Moffat (8) chipping in. Mitchell, Gill and Maddie Flaxman all had incredible defensive games, particularly in the second half to secure the win.
Truax was able to help control the pace for the entire touranment and Oliver controlled the boards with incredible rebounding and the combination fo their leadership and contributions from the entire team the Hurricanes ended up with the best record in years and a 81% winning percentage and an incredible come from behind victory in their last game.
All ten players (including Hailey Schell, Cadence Dixon and Justin McNaughton) contributed to an incredible record of 18 wins, 4 losses on the season; a bronze medal in division 3 and an overall ranking of 27 out of 52 teams in the Province.
Congratulations to our two graduating players who have played their last game as Hurricanes; Riley Truax heading to Gueph University and Lauryn Oliver who has yet to commit but will also be attending univeristy this fall. Both were true leaders who also both achieved high school averages over 90 percent.
