St. Mary's sweeps NOSSA 'AA' championships

The St. Mary's Knights are kings of the court in the senior and junior girls basketball ranks.

On Saturday, both squads captured Northern Ontario Secondary Schools Association (NOSSA) 'AA' championships in Sudbury in convincing fashion.

In senior, the Knights rolled past North Bay Chippewa 44-21 while the junior Knights defeated Sudbury Notre Dame 52-33.

With the NOSSA title, the senior Knights now advance to the Ontario Federation of Schools Athletic Association (OFSAA) championships beginning Thursday in New Liskeard. There are no OFSAA playdowns in junior.

In the senior final, Kathleen Thorburn dropped 16 points while Brttany Denneny and Stephanie Colizza added 10 each for the Knights.

St. Mary's held a 15-6 lead at the half but Chippewa responded in the second half and cut the lead to five. Going with a full court defense in the fourth quarter, the Knights outscored Chippewa 21-5 to run away with the title.

The Knights advanced to final with a 63-31 win over Lo-Ellen, from Sudbury. Thorburn scored 16 points, Denney 10 and Kira Favaro eight.

On Friday, St. Mary's opened the tournament with a 48-20 victory over Notre Dame of Sudbury. Thorburn drained nine points and Colizza eight while Julia Burgess and Brittany Denneny added six points each.

In junior, the Knights cruised past all the competition en route to the championship. In games leading up to the final, St. Mary's whipped North Bay's West Ferris Trojans 44-9 and Espanola 36-15.