Katelyn Andrea knows how to go out in style.
The St. Ignatius Falcons forward, who still has work to do at regionals this weekend, scored 18 first-half points at the Thunderdome on Monday, finished with 22 and helped deliver a third straight championship to the senior girls team, a 47-36 championship win over the Hammarskjold Vikings (9-1).
“I think it’s a great way to end it,” the 17-year-old said. “I mean three in a row, what more can you ask for. That’s awesome.”
Teammate Cassandra Souleas, who like Andrea rode all three championship trains, not to mention a junior championship in her Grade 9 year, wholeheartedly agreed.
“It feels great,” said Souleas, who finished with six points, including a key three-pointer in a rapidly tightening fourth quarter that saw the surging Vikings cut a 16-point lead to 10 on an Aliisa Heiskanen three-pointer.
“Hammarskjold’s a really good team and we really had to work for it this year. It just feels so good to win. I’m pretty proud. Four years is a pretty good thing.”
The Falcons (9-1) took control of the championship game early, knowing a single win would seal the title for their school. Hammarskjold, the lower seed, needed to win two straight to claim the crown.
St. Ignatius roared out to a 8-1 lead, and stretched it to 13-3 when Andrea hit a three-pointer and followed with another basket, pushing the Falcons to a 16-7 first-quarter lead.
Andrea, who is looking at Lakehead University to continue her career, led the Falcons on a 6-0 run early in the second, a familiar site said losing Hammarskjold coach Bruno Corbin.
“Every time that we we’ve played them, Katelyn Andrea’s been the one who’s killed us every time, Corbin said.
“She’s just been a dagger every time and we just had trouble. She seems to be on every time we play her. According to my sources she’s not always on, but she’s always on when she plays us.”
And when the Vikings managed to contain Andreas in the second half, the Falcons had a plan for that too, said St. Ignatius co-coach Matt Erdman.
“Hammarskjold does a really good job of playing tough defence, whether it’s zone or man, and we knew they were going to key on Katelyn. We still wanted to play through Katelyn and have other people move off the ball and make them adjust to what we were going to do offensively,” Erdman said.
The coach, who assists Scott Morrison with Lakehead’s men’s basketball team, said the three-peat was foremost in their minds when the season began, but it wasn’t something they actively discussed.
“With the group of girls that came back, and with the talent level, that was the expectation,” he said. “We didn’t really talk about it all that much, we just want to take it one game at a time. These girls did a great job all year of preparing for every team and not taking any team lightly. Hammarskjold’s a really tough team and we knew we were going to have a tough game.”
The Falcons led 28-15 at the half and 34-23 after three quarters.
Next up for the Falcons is a date with Fort Frances on home court at this weekend’s Northwestern Ontario Secondary School Athletic Association’s regional championship and the right to a berth at provincials.
Game 1 is Friday, the time to be determined.
