The Grade 10 girls' basketball team battled hard but fell to the Robert Bateman Timberwolves in the Grade 10 Girls Cav Classic Final on Saturday. Collingwood faced a formidable opponent in Bateman as the Timberwolves won the Grade 9 BC Championship last year. In the same event, the Cavs finished 10th. Thus, it seemed like Collingwood was in for a very tough afternoon, especially since star forward Kayleigh Garland was away on senior team duty.
However, despite the apparent mis-match on paper, the Cavs quickly proved that they would not be intimidated. With Muneet Gill running the offence brilliantly from point guard, Collingwood got great looks throughout the first half. Rachel Na, Sarah Gerber, Rachel Graham and Brooke Lucke all took advantage of terrific cuts to the basket to get easy buckets. The Cavs only had seven players dressed for the game so super-subs Izzy Fry and Cindy Lu were constantly pressed into action and both performed tremendously well.
At halftime, the Cavs were down by 10 points, but could have easily been tied if they had made only a fraction more of their lay-up attempts. Coach Button would have been pleased with the effort but would have also been ruing what could have been.
In the second half, the Cavs pushed the Timberwolves hard. Sara drove hard to the basket for a couple of highlight reel hoops and the team's tenacious defence started to shut down Bateman. On two occasions, Collingwood cut the lead to 6 points. In the end, the Timberwolves strong inside game proved to be too much for the Cavs. Nevertheless, Coach Button came away with the strong belief that this team has the strength to once again push everyone in the North Shore league.
Muneet Gill was outstanding throughout the Cav Classic. Her terrific play on Saturday kept the Cavs in the game against a powerful Robert Bateman squad.