Lord Dorchester Beavers, WOSSAA A senior girls basketball champions, from left, are; back - Alexis Deramo, Madison O'Brien, Emma Mutsaers, Megan Dunn, Kali Dayman, coach Jess Coulas; front - Ashley Jones, Victoria Quance, Megan Beaudry, Kristen Bisschop, Katie Beaudry.
(photo / Rob J. Ross)
Thursday, November 17, 2016
By Rob J. Ross
PARKHILL, Ont. - Victoria Quance couldn't stop the tears. Her eyes started watering in the final minutes, when the Grade 10 guard realized she was going to OFSAA.
Quance and her Dorchester Beaver team-mates, defeated the St. Marys' Salukis, 47-38, in the Western Ontario Secondary School Athletic Assocation (WOSSAA) 'A' senior girls basketball final, at North Middlesex high school.
Dorchester qualifies for the provincial high school tournament, held in Timmins, November 24-26.
"I was crying for like five minutes. This is the best feeling,” Quance said. “We realized what was at stake and what it all meant. We stepped it up. We’ve been talking about for a long time.”
The Beavers started this season holding the memory of the last year’s WOSSAA final, a 44-39 loss, to London Westminster.
"We came in with some expectations (this year), that we deserved to be here and we wanted it,” Dorchester coach Jess Coulas said. “We weren’t looking past any games, but we wanted to win this game.”
Aside from a few brief St. Marys’ leads, early in the first quarter, Dorchester was in front all game. The Beavers led by as much as 10 points, before a late half surge by the Salukis, made it a one point game.
Dorchester's Katie Beaudry (10) drives towards the hoop, against St. Marys, during the WOSSAA A senior girls' basketball final. (photo / Rob J. Ross)
In the second half, the Beavers took over, led by shooting guard Katie Beaudry, along with strong support from Quance and centre Kristen Bisschop.
Dorchester held a nine point advantage, before settling for a seven point win.
“We just kept doing what we have been doing all year. Hard defence end to end, strong passes. The girls relay on their athletism,” Coulas said. “Katie Beaudry turned it on. She put that game face on. Victoria Quance had an awesome game too.”
No individual stats were tracked on the game sheet, but Beaudry was the game’s high scorer.
On one play, Beaudry made the steal in the Beavers’ defensive zone and went the down the court for the basket.
“(St. Marys) is a good team. We really haven’t been use to that. It’s nice to play teams well matched with us,” Beaudry said, “But we all decided we really need to go to OFSAA.
“We have speed. We keep going and we don’t seem to get tired. That’s what we seem to do. We run them down and try to make the other team tired.”
Helping her older team-mates attain their long desired goal, satisfied Quance.
“The older girls just inspire me so much, to be the best I can be,” Quance said. “They’re such good role models and I just want to be the best for them, because I know how bad they want it.”
Quance had an inspired game in the semi-finals, a 37-28 win, over host North Middlesex.
A week earlier, Dorchester beat Glencoe, 37-17, in the Thames Valley Regional A final, advancing the Beavers to WOSSAA.
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