THUNDER BAY – A year ago, the St. Ignatius Falcons hit the senior girls basketball final as overwhelming favourites, unbeaten and destined for greatness.
The Hammarskjold Vikings had other ideas and knocked off the No. 1 seed 63-57, a loss that lingered long in the minds of the returning Falcons.
The Falcons got their redemption on Monday night against a 10-0 Vikings team looking to complete a perfect season.
Alyssa Gvora hit a three-pointer late that broke a 44-44 tie – coming on the heels of a 13-point Hammarskjold run that erased 44-31 Falcons lead – and added another basket in the final minute for insurance, as the Falcons got their title a year later than planned, downing Hammarskjold in their own gym 49-44.
“I was just thinking we needed to keep our energy up because when we have energy, we thrive,” the 17-year-old said.
“Hitting that first shot brought the whole team up. We forced a bad shot by them on defence. It went out of bounds, we got it back … and I got a wide-open shot out of it.”
It feels great, she added.
“I think this was redemption. It felt really bad last year. Having a perfect record and then getting beat in our own gym, so I felt this year we had to come back to get the redemption,” said Gvora, who put up 16 points on the night, second on the team to her twin sister, Alexa, who finished with 20.
The Falcons never trailed once in the contest, opening a 5-0 lead and carrying it through to a 13-7 advantage after the opening quarter.
They led by as much as 22-9 in the second, but back-to-back buckets by Hammarskjold’s Sara Clouthier kept the Falcons from running away with the contest before halftime, the gap cut to eight when Clouthier and Kayin Crocker scored late in the second.
Clouthier, who led all scorers with 22, hit a pair of free throws early in the third to close the gap to third, but that’s when Alexa Gvora took over. She hit a turnaround jumper to make it 27-21, drained a three to up the Vikings lead to 30-23, drove the lane for another bucket and capped her run with another three-pointer that upped the Falcons lead to 35-23.
In the junior final, Hammarskjold captured the crown with a 25-19 win over St. Ignatius.
They carried an 11-point advantage into the fourth, but the Vikings weren’t willing to give up their title hopes quite so easily.
Down 44-31, Kirsten Clouthier started a 13-0 run with a shot from distance. Sister Sara hit a pair of free throws and then drained a three of her own, and Kirsten took over from there, picking up a quick five points to even the score 44-44.
The Vikings had a chance to take the lead, but couldn’t get the shot to drop.
Coach Kevin Brooks said it was great to see his players stand their ground and not let Hammarskjold’s late surge get into their heads.
“We just called a timeout, with two minutes left, and said it was a two-minute game, and we just kind of tried to settle them down. We’d gotten really stagnant on offence. We talked to them about how they’d come out and be pretty aggressive,” Brooks said.
“Alyssa had that shot fake, slipped under it and had like a 10-foot jumper, which in money for her. She’s going to hit that nine out of 10 times.”
The Falcons will head west to the NWOSSA championship against a yet-to-be-determined opponent, for the right to play at provincials.
