Joey Payeur
A plan to deliver some payback turned out to be as good as gold for the St. Francis Sentinels girls’ basketball team.
The Sentinels downed the Riverview Royals (Rainy River) 17-12 in the final of the Rainy River District Athletic Association Grade 8 girls’ regional basketball championship Saturday at J.W. Walker School.
With a portion of the St. Francis roster called away to hockey commitments, the Royals dumped the Sentinels 14-3 in the final of the opening tournament of the season at Crossroads School in Devlin.
But St. Francis made certain that setback would not be repeated, although it had to rise above a trio of injuries and some foul troubles to prevail in the gold-medal game.
The final started with Riverview scoring the first two baskets before St. Francis was able to storm back and quickly tie the score 4-4.
The intensity of the match-up began to take its toll on the Sentinels as key performers Sierra Cousineau, Cara Sane, and Madisyn DeGagne were forced to the bench with an assortment of injuries that put them out of action for the entire second half.
The St. Francis bench was shortened even further late in the game with sharpshooter Cassandra Moffitt and the defensively-aggressive Shanleigh Fryer fouling out.
But the lightning-like speed of guards Anika Alexander and Taylor DeGagne sparked a defensive tour de force for the Sentinels in the second half, creating numerous turnovers by the shell-shocked Royals.
Along with tight defensive play from Amber Townson, Libby Paleczny, Alexis Perrault, and Maria Ball, as well as clutch offensive contributions from Abbi Perreault and Sarah Strain, the Sentinels kept the contest close and took over the lead for good in the last three minutes—never to relinquish it again to bring home the gold.
High scorers for St. Francis during the tournament were Moffitt with 29 points in the four games.
Perrault had 19 points while Strain finished with 10.
The Sentinels showed they meant business early in the tournament by blanking the Robert Moore Mustangs 28-0 in their first game of Pool ‘A’ preliminary-round play.
St. Francis then defeated the Sturgeon Creek Sturgeons (Barwick) 14-3 to secure first place in the pool with a 2-0 mark.
That meant a semi-final battle against a tough Crossroads Tornadoes team from Devlin, whom the Sentinels beat 24-7 on the very same court two weeks ago in the final of the J.W. Walker Wildcats’ tourney.
The Tornadoes were much more formidable in the rematch but St. Francis still came away with a 15-9 win to send them into the gold-medal game against Riverview.
Riverview had advanced in Pool ‘B’ by going 2-0, including a tight 12-10 win over Crossroads and a 22-0 whitewashing of Atikokan High School.
The Royals then faced Sturgeon Creek in the other semi-final, with Riverview prevailing 19-10.
The bronze-medal game saw Crossroads, which downed Atikokan 16-4 to finish second in Pool ‘B’ at 1-1 ahead of third-place and winless Atikokan, take on Sturgeon Creek.
The Sturgeons, which edged the Robert Moore Mustangs 12-11 to earn a semi-final spot against St. Francis, provided stiff competition for the Tornadoes.
But the Devlin crew was not to be denied and completed one of the better seasons in its recent history by grabbing a 19-13 victory to corral the bronze.
In the game to decide fifth place, the Mustangs unleashed a season’s worth of pent-up offensive fury upon Atikokan and hammered the out-of-towners 26-8 in the battle between the two 0-2 teams at the tournament.
