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Wednesday, November 22, 2000 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER D1 An O akville Beaver Feature Editor: NORM NELSON Phone:845-3824, ext 255 Fax:337-5567 E-mail nnelson@haltonsearch.com Aquinas sweeps Halton titles By Norm Nelson BEAVER SP O R T S ED ITO R Show ing the strength o f its basketball pro gram , St. T hom as A quinas pulled o ff a rare double on M onday at the Sheridan C ollege gym, w inning both the ju n io r and senior girls Halton high school basketball titles. T he ju n io rs set the stage w ith a well earned b ut close 32-25 w in over N elson from Burlington. T he senior team then follow ed up w ith a convincing 60-35 w in over N otre D am e, also from B urlington. Both O akville team s w ere undefeated in Halton this year throughout the regular sea son and playoffs. For the ju n io rs, the H alton cham pionship is as far as they go. For the seniors, they now have bigger fish to fry, earn in g a berth d irec tly into the O FS A A p ro v in cial c h a m p io n sh ip s in H am ilton in D ecem ber. B efore that, there is still the m atter o f the G -H A C (G o ld en H o rsesh o e A thletic C o n feren ce) ch a m p io n sh ip this F riday at S heridan, but this year th e re's ju st pride on the line (b ecause G -H A C is hosting the provincials), and you can be sure A quinas is happy about that. T h a t's because their likely opponent will be defending provincial cham pion St. M ary 's, also co n sidered the team to beat again this year. St. M ary 's ended A q uinas' season last year at G -H A C in a close gam e and th ey 've been up to their old tricks again this year, one o f only tw o schools to have beaten the senior Raiders, by 14 points. T he only other school to have beaten them this year is the reigning O F S A A silver m edal ists, O ur L ady o f L ourdes from G uelph, but A quinas then turned around and beat them the follow ing w eekend. "We d o n 't have the threat o f L aura C huba inside, but I think defensively w e're a lot bet ter than last year," said A lana Juzenas, the senior R aiders provincial team guard. T h e team w as certainly stifling on defence in their 60-35 win o ver N otre D am e, esp e cially in the first quarter w here only a late four-point rally by N otre D am e m anaged to m ake it a respectable 15-7 deficit. B ut the R aiders started the second quarter SENIOR RAIDERS TEAM: Lauren Hanley, Kelley MacKenzie, Alana Juzenas, Kara Lang, Katie Donovan, Karen Zmirak, Katie Ballard, Natalie Leggat, Clare O'Connor, Lisa Winnik, Cailin Miziolek, Shavonne Hasfal-Maclntosh and Kim Salem. COACHES: Mike Johnston and Mike · Giammichelle. MANAGER: Tina Valuinas. w ith an eight-point rally en route to a 29-13 lead at the half. Very early in the second half, A quinas then chalked up their biggest run o f the gam e, at 14 points, to take a 48-18 lead. They quickly extended it to 55-22, their biggest lead o f the gam e, and then sent in the reserves to m op up. Putting A quinas over the top w as one o f their tw o G rade 9 stars, K ara Lang, settling dow n and finding her range in the second half. A quinas boasts tw o G rade N ine players (the other being K aren Z m irak) who have cracked the starting line-up o f the senior squad. "A thletically, they're exceptionally gifted, but they're also very tough mentally, especial ly for their age, so they go in and give us real ly good m inutes and w e're lucky to have them ," said coach M ike Johnston, and then adding w ith a sm ile, "and w e're going to have them for three m ore years." Positionally, the tw o w ere okay in the first h alf but they co u ld n 't get anything to drop, save for tw o points by Lang. B ut in the second h alf L ang added 15 points for a gam e-high total o f 17. Z m irak also got on board w ith a three-pointer in the second half. L ang said that in the second h alf there w ere "less nerves on the team all around so that helped everybody's com posure." As for starting in the senior Halton cham pionship as a G rade 9 student, she said " I'm proud o f the team and honoured. "I think we w orked really hard to get to this point -- 6 a.m. practices every morning, alm ost." N ext in line in the scoring were new com er K atie D onovan, a ju n io r national team m em ber w ith 16 points, and provincial team m em ber Juzenas w ith 12 points, including a very steadying first-half high o f nine points. C ontributing six points each w ere Kim Salem , w ho saw top level action in the U.S. this past sum m er on an O ntario all-star team, and C ailin M iziolek. "I thought we played w ell," said coach Johnston. "It w as a total team effort. I was really im pressed. "You have got to give kudos to N otre Dam e. T hey did a super jo b . T here's a lot o f fight in that team. "We try to pride ourselves on our defence so we did a good jo b o f setting the tem po, getting it up to an up tem po gam e where we could take advantage o f som e o f our depth. "All o f our girls show up at 5:50 a.m. to practice. It's a com plete team effort." In the convoluted G -H A C finals, N otre D am e goes on to a G -H A C ru n -o ff today (W ednesday) w ith H am ilton Rom an C atholic cham pion St. M ary's w ho have to be prohib itive favourites. If, as expected, A quinas m eets up w ith St. M ary's in F riday's G -H A C final, Johnston expects "it will be extrem ely tough. They have a trem endous am ount o f depth. They have 14/15 players that are all excellent. It's a tough program ." But at least this year, it will only be pride (See Aquinas' page 03) TOP PHOTO: in the junior final, Sarah Dillon is closely covered by a Nelson player. BOTTOM PHOTO: in the senior final, Cailin Miziolek fights for the ball with Notre Dame's Tenima Teixeira. P hotos by B arrie E rskine Mac fails to advance The McMaster Marauder football team will not be going to the Vanier Cup at the SkyDome Dec. 2 after losing their semifinal game 20-15 to third ranked Ottawa on Saturday. CIAU top scorer and rusher Kojo Aidoo of Oakville was lim ited to 78 yards on 18 carries by Ottawa's top ranked defensive squad. Aidoo is the OUA's MVP and is up for the Hec Creighton trophy. Aidoo along with brother Kwame Aidoo, a comer back for Mac, were first team OUA all stars. Both are Loyola grads. Oakville's Mike Kaslauskas was an OUA second team all-star. TO URNEY The McMaster Marauder men's basketball team won their own Pinky Lewis Classic, defeating Windsor 70-49 and Guelph 72-62. Aquinas grad Rodney Baptiste was tourney MVP. UPPER M iDOLE RO. j *m / I rrATOBuiTSfL r j * r < ; t e i u $ i i ) F > P n rj1 m t r r i 'xM r~ ; id LEGEND CREEK PREVIEW RECEPTION N O V E M B E R 30 th At The Oakville G olf Club Reserve Your Place Prices and specifications are subject to change without notice. E & O.E. Rendering is artist's concept. 9 0 5 -2 7 0 -3 8 6 8 y * ·> / ^ ' · `V " * ` z i p c c K to? Here's what we'll do: W p e r o n k V im L S H O P P IN G C E N T R E : m j w n lU n m rTTT T : m i .1 fin SHOPPING PLA n >9pm Sat 9am-6pm, _ I OPEN IN SPRING 2001 s(Hwy. Trafalgar HOURS: · Install up to 8L of Motomaster Coolant · Pressure - test cooling system · Visually inspect all belts & hoses · Check cooling fan operation veh icles