The following was submitted on behalf of the Barrie Royals Basketball Club:
This past weekend, the U19 Barrie Royals Women’s Basketball team played in the Ontario Cup, a provincial tournament to wrap the season for all Ontario Basketball Association (OBA) teams.
The championship was hosted by the city of Kingston with all games played at Queen's University.
Going into the provincial tournament, the Royals were seeded fourth out of eight teams in Division 2.
After a hard-fought season, the team felt well prepared to excel at the final tournament. Their hard work at practice was tested in their opening on Friday evening against the Pelham Panthers.
Friday night at provincials is always a grinding affair, as players must choke down their nerves and get their energy after a lengthy drive to Kingston.
After a jittery start that saw the underdogs from Pelham take the early lead, the Royals settled into their trademark smothering defence to stop Pelham in their tracks.
The girls from Barrie finished with a 46-39 win and their tournament was off and running.
The next game was Saturday morning against Nepean. Nepean came into the game riding an emotional high after upsetting the one seed the night before. It didn’t take long for the Royals to bring them back to Earth.
Usually, the Ontario Cup features all close games against close seeded teams, but in this match-up the Royals ran away to a 37-point win, holding Nepean to a scant 23 points. The Royals offense exploded with a barrage of three-point shots that rained down throughout the game, which saw the Royals post a division-high 60 points in a game.
Their third pool game would serve as a semifinal, with the winner advancing to the gold-medal game, and the loser with a chance for bronze.
Their opponent was Toronto Triple Threat, the No. 1 seed in the division. The teams were well acquainted with each other, playing twice in regular-season action, two games that the Triple Threat had won against the Barrie Royals.
But the old adage of it being hard to beat the same team three times in a row proved true and the underdog Royals held the high-scoring team from Toronto to a mere 28 points. Barrie came away with a 15-point win.
Next up was the final against North Toronto. A fast bunch of players that use different traps to get into a rapid transition game that stuns opponents with speed.
Barrie had seen North Toronto during the season, suffering a difficult loss in which Barrie had blown a lead against the trapping speed of their opponents. This time around, the Royals relied on their own defense to completely shut down the other side.
Both teams had a hard time generating any reliable half-court offense and this game was a showcase of defensive technique and incredible force of will.
In the end the Royals were victorious by a score of 32-26.
The Royals played a man-to-man defence that completely flummoxed all of their opposition in the tournament. They gave up an average of 29 points per game, leaving their foes shocked at how difficult it was to score. Their teamwork won rave reviews from opposing coaches and officials. Their own coaches couldn’t be prouder of their willingness to play for each other.
It was the kind of team defence that only comes when players buy into the group identity.
After the final game, players, parents and coaches felt the rush of emotion as for many it was the culmination of a long run as club basketball players.
Three members of the team are in Grade 11 and may still play high school and club basketball, for the other nine members it was their last game as high school or club athletes. Tears flowed as the team came to terms with the joy of shared success and the sense of finality for their time together.
