Lady Gens capture Humber College Classic tournament
Amherst also wins two league games
Posted 19 days ago
AMHERSTBURG — The Amherst senior girls basketball team won the prestigious Humber College Classic over the weekend. This tournament features many of the top teams in the province and probably had three of the top four or five seeds at this year's AAAA OFSAA. This year's championship was a rematch of last year's final between Amherst and Waterloo Collegiate. Waterloo defeated Hamilton St. Mary's in the semis and Amherst had defeated St. Anne's to advance into the final. Amherst struggled all game with their shooting and found themselves down by 10 with less than five minutes left in the game. They kept battling and eventually took the lead when Courtney VandeBovenkamp hit a shot in the final minute and Amherst went on to 40-39 victory. Korissa Williams had 11 points, Courtney had nine and Christine Belcher had six. In their 55-41 semi-final victory over St. Anne, Courtney had 15 points, Korissa had 12, Talya Tovar and Christine Belcher had six each, Sam Kellam and Mallory Reiner had five each. This was the third time this year that Amherst has defeated a very talented St. Anne's squad.
In their quarterfinal game, Amherst took on Guelph Bishop MacDonnell who had their whole team back from last year. Guelph upset Amherst last year in the OFSAA AA gold medal game. Amherst got their sweet revenge and left no doubt who the best AA team in the province is this year by trouncing Bishop MacDonnell 66-42. Korissa had 25 points, Courtney had 17 and Jessica Mallender had 12.
In their first game of the tournament they defeated Michael Power out of Toronto 56-40. Courtney had 17, Korissa had 11, Talya had 10 and Amy and Christine Belcher had six each.
This completed Amherst's successful tournament season as they captured four tournament championships, lost in the finals of two others and in the semi final of the Super 12 to the eventual tournament champions. They will begin their playoffs next week as they try to gain an OFSAA AAA berth at the end of the month.
In league play, the Lady Gens remained undefeated with a pair of victories last week. Amherst won both on the road with a 62-32 win at Riverside last Thursday and a 60-29 victory at Villanova Oct. 27. Coach Dom Silvaggio credited win at Villanova to the players coming off the bench as the starters struggled early going one-for-22 from the floor to start the game.
"The victory belongs to the bench tonight," he said, following the Villanova win. "It was a very, very bad first quarter."
That game saw Courtney VandeBovenkamp lead with ten points followed by Carly Fasan and Jaylin VandeBovenkamp with nine each. Mallory Reiner and Christine Belcher each scored eight points while Jessica Mallender had five.
