Historic win for County Clippers U12 girls

The County Clippers U12 Girls made history this past weekend earning a silver medal at the Ontario Cup in Bradford. The girls are the first team in club history to medal at provincial championships.

Game wrap-ups with Coach Lesley Lavender:

Game 1 vs. Toronto Lords: 32 – 15 WIN
The Clippers opened the tournament with an impressive win over the Toronto Lords. A strong start opened up an early 10-4 lead. The Clippers maintained the lead throughout the game utilizing strong defence from Brooke Gallagher, Maeve Sanderson and Drew Spencer. The Clippers attack was paced by Grace Lacroix, Vanessa Lavender and Maeve Veenstra who contributed 12, six and four points respectively.

Game 2 vs. Lindsay Wildcats: Overtime LOSS
In the second game of the tournament the Clippers faced the Lindsay Wildcats. The Wildcats had a commanding 22-13 lead heading into the last quarter of the game, but a strong County Clipper squad stormed back to make it a 24-21 game. In the final 5.8 seconds, Maeve Veenstra made a layup while being fouled and was able to convert the free throw to tie the game. Despite a valiant effort, the Wildcats pulled away to win in overtime.

Game 3 (semi-finals) vs. Belleville Spirits: 24 – 14 WIN
The Clipper squad faced a strong challenge to rebound from the second match to compete with the Belleville Spirits. The Clippers charged out to an early lead on the strength of strong full court pressure defence from Brooke Spencer and great rebounding from Jada Ashley and Hannah Crowe. Sister duo Katie and Olivia McFaul cut through the Spirit defence to score eight points and Isabella Bender added two more driving hard to the basket to pace the Clipper attack.

Game 4 (championship game) vs. Lindsay Wildcats: 23 – 18 – SILVER
The final gold medal game of the tournament saw the County Clippers in a rematch versus the Lindsay Wildcats. The Clippers faced a true test of character in facing the Lindsay team in the final after a difficult contest with the Wildcats earlier in the tournament.

Trailing 19-5 at the half, the Clippers continued to work the battle of the boards and break the strong full court pressure of the fast and feisty Lindsay squad. The Clippers found a new level of play and silenced the Wildcats crowd by completely shutting down the their offence for the final eight minutes of the game. The valiant effort by the girls fell short however, shooting only 12 per cent from the line and ultimately losing 23-18.

The County Clippers were acknowledged by the tournament organizers for their determination over the course of the tournament.

Overall, the girls competed in five tournaments this year in Picton, Belleville, Kingston, Newmarket and Bradford. They played exhibition games in Belleville, Kingston, Peterborough, Cobourg and Lindsay and ended with an overall record of 15 wins and 15 losses.
“The coaches are proud of the growth and improvement each player showed over the course of the season and they are looking forward to their team development session at Camp Olympia in June,” said Lavender.