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Second quarter lapse costly for Warriors junior girls

WHAT looked like a promising start to the season for the QEDHS Warriors junior girls basketball team is now slowly dwindling into a shaky finish.
Last Thursday the Warriors dropped their second game to St. Thomas Aquinas Saints 31- 13 in front of the home crowd. It was their last game of the regular season.
The loss was a result of too many turnovers, missed shots and a second-quarter blunder that allowed the Saints to take a 15-point lead into the second half.“The girls took a lot of shots today and normally – holy smokes – we should have got half of those,” said Warriors coach Stephen Hicks.
The Warriors trailed the entire game. The closest they came to the lead was at the end of the first quarter when the Warriors scored a late basket to make the score 8-4.
But the second quarter was disaster for the Warriors. Twice the Warriors turned the ball over in their own end,which offered the Saints offense easy baskets.
After Cassandra Strickland, who scored a team-high six points on the day, opened the third quarter with a three-pointer, the Warriors’ struggles in the offense zone started again.
Strickland scored the lone basket on a foul shot in the fourth quarter.
This season looked promising for the Warriors (8-4), who started the season with
four consecutive wins. Now that they have a few losses on their record, winning, they’ve learned, won’t come as easily as it first did.
“Every game is important and you try to take that with you to the next game,” said Hicks.
Now that the regular season is concluded, the Warriors will take to the road and are headed to Kenora for the NWOSSA playoffs.
With only three practices remaining before the trip to Kenora – which will be held at TA for the second consecutive year – Hicks will urge his players to search for a certain type of focus and intensity.
“(TA) is the best team in the league and they’re in first place. They play high intensity ball and (we) got to raise that level,” he said.
“The last time we played them the score was much more…. We certainly
closed the gap there.”
Their first concern at TA won’t be the host team, but will be whoever they face
in the first round to earn that spot in the fi nal, said Hicks.

Warriors b-ball girls repeat regular season success
THERE are many similarities to last season for the QEDHS Warriors senior
girls basketball team.
For one, the Warriors finished in second place in the regular season.
On Thursday the Warriors repeated last season’s results when they were the only team to beat the St. Thomas Aquinas Saints, winning 36-26.
With the NWOSSA playoffs starting this week in Kenora (hosted
by TA), where they were held last year, there’s just one trend the Warriors (8-4) want to change: winning a championship.
Last year the Warriors lost in the final to TA and took home a silver medal.
Early in the season the playoffs looked out of sight as the Warriors fell 0-2.
The reason for the turn around, as Warriors head coach Mike Still points out, is a lot of dedication and hard work.
“We had a lot of new girls this year coming up to the senior level and there were some things we were trying to incorporate that they were unfamiliar with,” said Still.
“It just takes time, repetition and practice.
“We’re starting to form well as a team and come together. I think we’re peaking right at the perfect time, right before the playoffs.”
Thursday’s home game against TA was a sign that the Warriors are championship
bound. The teams met two weeks ago in Kenora and the Warriors lost 40-25.
In their second match up, the Warriors dominated the whole way.
Starting in the first quarter, the Warriors had three players score four points each to lead 14-7.
Leading 20-16 at the start of the second half, the Warriors controlled the ball well and stayed away from fouls. In the second half the Saints fouled eight times, compared to the Warriors’ two.
Late in the third quarter, with the Warriors leading by three, Jen LaFrance found Nicole Polny wide open in the paint for an easy lay up. As the Saints were attacking
back, Polny stole the ball and ran down the court. Though she missed her lay up attempt, LaFrance banked the rebound to put her team ahead by seven.
“It definitely helped with the momentum,” said Still of the points. “They were creeping up on us a bit and we got four quick points, spreading it out by seven points."
Leading by five at the start of the final quarter, Still had complete confidence that his team would win.
“I thought we were playing well enough (on) defense that we really had to worry about controlling the ball offensively and not turning it over.”
Lauren Minty scored a game-high 12 points on the day.