The St. Basil Saints have captured Sault Ste. Marie's first ever Ontario Federation of Schools Athletic Association (OFSAA) girls basketball championship.
On Saturday night in Sturgeon Falls, the Saints defeated Rideau District High School 36-32 in the gold medal game to win the OFSAA 'A' Championship.
Samantha Rainone paced the Saints in the final with 13 points while Abby DiDonato added nine and Lara Stilin five.
The gold medal victory marked just the second OFSAA crown for the Sault in basketball play. Back in 1950, a boys team from Collegiate, coached by legendary Tom Tipton, captured the 'A' championship in Toronto.
The victory also marked the fourth ever win for a girls team from NOSSA. In the 1980's, Sudbury Secondary, coached by Mitch Lalonde, won three OFSAA 'AAA' crowns including a stretch of back-to-back titles.
The Saints advanced to the championship game with a 36-28 win over Hamilton's Hillfield Strathallan in the semi-final round earlier on Saturday.
In all, the Saints, who started the tournament as the third seed, finished with a perfect 5-0 record.
In city play, the Saints finished third in the senior division regular season standings before falling in the playoff semi-finals. Last weekend, the Saints captured NOSSA in Sudbury with a perfect record.
*** JR. COUGARS TRYOUTS:
The Sault Jr. Cougars basketball club will be holding try outs for girls in grades nine and 10. The tryouts will be held on Saturday Dec. 10 and Sunday Dec. 11 at St. Basil from 5 - 7 p.m. The team will be coached by Danielle Marchand.
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