NOSSA titles aplenty for Sault schools (update)

It was a clean sweep for the Korah Colts at the 'AA' Northern Ontario Secondary School Athletics (NOSSA) tournament held locally this weekend.

Korah's junior and senior girls basketball teams won their respective NOSSA titles on Saturday at Korah.

In the junior final, the Colts overcame a 22-9 deficit at the half to beat Superior Heights 39-36 while the senior Colts beat Lasalle 43-31 in the senior final.

In the senior game, Korah trailed 11-10 after one quarter before taking the lead in the second.

Tori Ivey scored 12 points in the quarter, which included three three-pointers as the Colts outscored Lasalle 16-8 in the frame en route to the victory.

“When you knock down threes like that and have the crowd behind you, it’s a momentum-builder,” said Korah Coach Gary Cormier. “The same thing happened to us in the city final. We didn’t play very well offensively but the fans were going nuts and the girls fed off that and I think they fed off it here today.”

Ivey finished the day with 18 points, including four three-pointers. Carina Hargis added nine points and Averi Bodnar chipped in with seven.

“She’s our leader. Tori was Tori,” Cormier said of Ivey.

Karly Hellstrom led Lasalle with nine points.

“Our defence wore them down over the course of the game,” Cormier said. “You could see the momentum change and get confident as the game went on. Our defence was just outstanding. All five girls that were on the court worked as one unit.”

In the junior final, Taylor Elliott had 15 points for Korah and led all scorers in the contest.

Annie Damignani had nine points to lead Superior Heights offensively.

In Sudbury, the St. Mary's Knights junior team beat Macdonald Cartier 34-32 thanks to a buzzer-beating shot by Emily Scarpino to win the junior 'AAA' title.

Mackenzi Chartrand scored 10 points for the Knights while Scarpino added eight.

The senior NOSSA ‘AAA’ title also went to St. Mary’s.

Serena Pulente scored 14 points as the Knights beat Macdonald Cartier 39-35.

Alicia Gibbs added nine points for the Knights. 

(Photo: The Korah Colts won both the junior and senior 'AA' NOSSA championships on home court on Saturday afternoon. Brad Coccimiglio/SooToday)