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38 Sports Oakville Beaver SPORTS EDITOR: JON KUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 432) Fax 905-337-5571 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2009 OT juniors win basketball crown By Kevin Nagel LOOKING FOR OPTIONS: Oakville Trafalgar player Alex Wilson (with ball) tries to figure out a way to get around Corpus Christi's Ally Vonk (22) and Hilary LaJoie yesterday at Sheridan College. OT won the Halton junior girls' basketball Division 1 championship with a 3534 victory over the Longhorns. NIKKI WESLEY / OAKVILLE BEAVER METROLAND WEST MEDIA GROUP Perhaps it was the experience of playing in last year's Halton junior girls' basketball Division 2 final that enabled the Oakville Trafalgar Red Devils to pull out a victory this year. OT had a lead of as "What I did not many as 10 points in expect was for us the third quarter of to pull away in y e s t e r d a y ' s the third quarter (Thursday's) Halton like that." junior Division 2 final against undefeated OT coach Corpus Christi, but Joyce Vaive needed every one of the points it scored to pull out an exciting 3534 upset at Sheridan College. OT's Heather Bonnelli hit two clutch free throws with 20 seconds remaining to put OT up by three, so a basket by Nsyea Kabengele of the Longhorns with four seconds remaining didn't change anything. "I knew (the Longhorns) would go to the pressure defence in the fourth quarter," said coach Joyce Vaive, who celebrated her first Halton title in the seven years she's had the job. "What I did not expect was for us to pull away in the third quarter like that." The Red Devils finished 8-2 in league play, which included a 15-point loss to Corpus Christi, but that didn't make Longhorns' coach Ashley Amodeo take OT for granted. "We weren't surprised they were better this time," she said. "It showed the heart of our girls to come back the way they did." Five OT players were in their second straight Halton final, but the team started poorly yesterday, trailing 6-0. The Red Devils were down 105 after one quarter but tied the score at 13-13 by halftime. "We knew nothing about (Corpus Christi) the first time we played," said Vaive. "They were in Tier 2 the year before and we were a bit intimidated by their big players and playing in their gym." One of OT's "big three" (along with Alex Wilson and Bonnelli), Grade 10 guard Rachael Cyrus, said the big difference in the second game was simple. "The first time I didn't think we played as a team," she said. "But we were nervous at the start (of this game), especially the new players." A 13-5 run in the third quarter put the Red See Coverage page 39