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Sports Oakville Beaver SPORTS EDITOR: JON KUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 255) Fax 905-337-5567 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com · FRIDAY, JULY 11, 2008 41 Bantam Venom wins Eastern Canadian title Girls' basketball team dominates opposition By Adam Johnston SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER enom is a type of toxin used mainly by insects and reptiles as a hunting or defensive mechanism. The Oakville Venom bantam girls' basketball team exerted its own brand of venom -- hunting its prey on offense and stifling it on defense -- on the competition at the Eastern Canadian championships recently, en route to the gold medal. The Venom dominated the tournament, which took place in Longueuil, Que., at both ends of the court. The team of 13-and-under girls never surrendered more than 39 points, while never scoring less than 45 points. "It was just a culmination of everything they've worked hard for together," said Venom assistant coach Cassandra Cyrus. "When we got on the floor, we just said we have to use our speed because we have a really quick team. All the stuff that we've learned over the last couple of years, just put that all together, and we were able to do that." Gunn named MVP Oakville relied heavily on power forward Rasheeka Gunn, who was named tournament MVP, to produce points from the post position. "Rasheeka did really, really well. She's probably easily the best post player in all of Ontario. She's a clearly dominant player," said Venom head coach Pat Traynor. Oakville received surprise performances from Alex Ruscica and Kayla Davis throughout the tournament to complement the dominant play of Gunn. "When Rasheeka was in foul trouble in a couple of the games we had to sit her out for a couple of periods, so Alex stayed in there double time and she helped to keep us up," said Cyrus. "Also, we just saw a turnaround in Kayla a couple of months ago. This is her first year with the team and she was just trying to get to know the girls and what not, and then we saw a turnaround with her. She started playing like why we put her on the team; she would drive to the basket, (play) awesome defense and just (keeping) her head in the game." The Venom also received solid play from its guards, Emily Wilk and Sarah Traynor. The Venom won matchups over ABC Sports (Quebec), Prince Edward Island and the North Preston Bulls (New Brunswick) in round-robin play. It downed Blessed Sacrament (Hamilton) 55-39 in the semifinal game, and then pulled out a 45-33 win over the Westenders (Newfoundland and Labrador) in the gold-medal game, Oakville's narrowest margin of victory throughout the tournament. Oakville had also defeated Blessed V EASTERN CANADIAN CHAMPS: There was no shortage of smiles on the faces of Oakville bantam Venom players and coaches after the girls' basketball team won the Eastern Canadian title recently in Quebec. Oakville won all five of its games at the championships, including a 45-33 victory over a Newfoundland team in the final. Buzz shifts into high gear on neutral floor Oakville dispatches Lightning, faces Mimico next in lacrosse Jr. B playoffs By Jon Kuiperij BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR See Hard page 42 BOWMANVILLE -- After surviving a Lightning storm, the Oakville Buzz now has a new Mountain to climb. The Buzz will meet the division rival Mimico Mountaineers in the second round of the Ontario Lacrosse Association junior B playoffs, a series that begins tomorrow (Saturday, 7 p.m.) at Glen Abbey "I wish it hadn't come down to (a Recreation Centre. Oakville advanced to the second fifth game)... round with a 12-7 victory over the because it takes a Akwesasne Lightning Tuesday in lot out of you, but Bowmanville, avoiding what would have been a monumental upset. The getting through this Buzz (the conference's top seed, having series will give us a gone 17-3 in the regular season) won lot of momentum." the first two games of its series with the 9-11 Lightning, but Akwesasne won Oakville Buzz two games at home last weekend to head coach Stu Brown force a fifth and deciding game. "The biggest thing was remembering everything we've worked for," said Buzz captain Mike Bentivegna, who was part of the national champion Oakville team two years ago. "Everything we did all year, to throw it away in one game, is not the way we wanted it to end." Playing on a neutral floor Tuesday at the Garnett Rickard Recreation Complex because of a bizarre scheduling dispute with the Lightning, Oakville started slowly. The Buzz trailed 1-0 after the first period and was down 3-1 early in the second, but managed to keep its composure. Mark White, Braden Gallant, Eric Crepinsek and Bentivegna all scored in a 3:33 span to give Oakville a 5-3 lead. The Lightning's Max Shea scored two beautiful goals to tie the game, but the Buzz responded with markers by Gallant, Harry Hristopoulos and Alex Kruse -- the latter with 1.5 seconds left in the period -- to take a 85 lead into the second intermission. Hristopoulos added two goals in the third to complete his hat trick, sandwiched by tallies from teammates Connor Gamble and Ethan O'Connor. Leading by five with three minutes to go, the Buzz was finally able to breath easily again. Sense of relief "It's definitely a sense of relief. The boys are all pretty pumped," said Oakville head coach Stu Brown. "I wish it hadn't come down to (a fifth game)... because it takes a lot out of you, but getting through this series will give us a lot of momentum. The other teams that had got through the first round haven't been tested yet, but we've pushed ourselves to the wall." Gallant, part of last year's Oakville team that went 14-4-2 in regular-season play before being swept in the opening round of the playoffs by Halton Hills, also felt the Buzz will benefit from the series against Akwesasne. See Coach page 42