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Bulldogs romp in BPSN final

BY BERNIE PUCHALSKI bpsportsniagara.com Kaley DeMont was front and centre as the Sir Winston Bulldogs thumped the Denis Morris Reds 65-28 to win the First BPSN Girls Basketball Tournament.

BY BERNIE PUCHALSKI bpsportsniagara.com

Kaley DeMont was front and centre as the Sir Winston Bulldogs thumped the Denis Morris Reds 65-28 to win the First BPSN Girls Basketball Tournament.

The Grade 12 guard had a big smile on her face as chants of MVP came out of the crowd after she was announced as the winner of Tora MVP Trophy.

“It means so much because it’s my last year and all my friends support me so much and it was great to have them out here.”

The 17-year-old was a three-time all-star in The Standard tournament, the predecessor to the BPSN tourney, and this was the first time she took home MVP honours.

“It means that all of my hard work has been paying off but it’s a team MVP and everyone deserves our MVP, not just one person,” DeMont said. “But it does mean so much to get it.”

DeMont is hoping her team will go deep in the provincial high school playdowns, and then she will figure out where she wants to play post-secondary hoops.

“It really comes down to what I want to do and I think I have narrowed it down to the schools that I want,” she said.

Brock and Guelph are the frontrunners but she is also looking at the options.

Churchill head coach Frank Keltos has had a front-row seat to watch DeMont’s excellence for the past four years.

“The maturity of a Grade 12 is nice to have and it is going to be tough to not have her any more.”

MVP Kaley DeMont. BILL POTRECZ PHOTO

The Grade 12 student, who averaged 14.3 points per game in the tournament and netted 14 points Friday night, is as good a ball handler as she is a shooter.

“She can get out of the smallest hole you could imagine and she can dribble out of it,” Keltos said. “She is so skilled with the ball, it’s ridiculous.”

After a nail-biting semifinal victory over Eden, Friday’s dominating final victory over Denis Morris was somewhat anticlimactic for the Bulldogs.

“We came ready and focused and we were hitting shots and Lexxus [Bell] got into some foul trouble,” she said. “We said not to let her be the person that keeps them in the game and then we just put pressure on everyone else.”

It was a typical win for the Bulldogs, with scoring coming from a bunch of different players.

“They were denying Kaley and Ally [Sentance] from getting the ball and shooting and I told Kennedy [Millin] to shoot the ball,” Keltos said. “Then all of a sudden, Brooke [Keltos] came in and Yemi [Oladipo] came in and we were hitting shots everywhere.

“They didn’t have anything else they could do other than play normal and not just stop them.”

DeMont enjoyed the final.

“We have never played DM, so it was really great to play my final [BPSN] game against them because some of my friends are on the other team.”

Denis Morris coach Stephanie DiMizio felt the Reds will benefit from the experience of playing in the tournament.

“I’m so happy with the week we’ve had,” she said. “We made it [to the finals] which was our goal. We knew we would be in tough tonight, but we played great.

“We’re in another tournament next week and I hope we can just build off this and keep the momentum going and learn what our strengths and weakness are so we can improve.”

All-stars Lexxus Bell, Madalyn Weinert, Ally Sentance, Kennedy Millin and Jordyn Britton.

Joining DeMont on the all-star team were: Churchill’s Ally Sentance and Kennedy Millin; Denis Morris’ Lexxus Bell and Jordyn Britton; and, Eden’s Madalyn Weinert.

Sentance, a Grade 11 student, averaged 12.8 points a game in the tournament and scored seven points in the final. Millin, a Grade 10 student, averaged 5.3 points in the tournament and scored 11 points in the final. Bell, a Grade 12 student, led the tournament in scoring with 84 points. She averaged 21 points a game in the tournament and scored 14 points in the final. Britton, a Grade 12 student, averaged 10 points a game in the tournament and netted five points in the final. Weinert, a Grade 11 student, averaged 23 points a game to help her team reach the semifinals.

Stats Pack

Bulldogs 65 Reds 28

Mick and Angelo’s/Johnny Rocco’s/Cracker Jacks Players of the Game: Churchill’s Kaley DeMont with 14 points and DM’s Lexxus Bell with 14 points.

For the Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs: Brookelyn Keltos 18; DeMont 14; Kennedy Millin 11; Yemi Oladipo 8; Ally Sentance 7; Olivia Krieger 5; Sam Cormier 2; Raegan Emonds 2.

For the Denis Morris Reds: Bell 14; Cayla Mirabella 8; Jordyn Britton 5; Victoria Kaufman 2; Bianca Sestili 1.

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