Spirits Battle Back For Victory (Copy)

After the first quarter the Peacock Toilers senior girls basketball team held a small two point lead over the Vanier Spirits.

But the Spirits battled back.

And unfortunately for the Toilers basketball is a four quarter game and the Spirits were able to battle back for a 47 - 39 win.

For Vanier Spirits head coach Miguel Cruz the win was the result of a tough fought game.

“The first quarter was all going to them definitely. I don’t know they’re a well oiled machine and things just seemed to be going their way and we just couldn’t find our feet,” Cruz said.

“I think having one of our players right off the hop in warmups kind of threw them off a bit,” he said.

The unidentified player is suspected to be OK after an ankle injury.

“We were a little bit off at the start, but we found our groove and came back.”

Asked about how enthused the Spirits were he said “the team was pumped for how they played.”

To supplement their numbers the Spirits called up a pair of players from the junior team.

Cruise is a coach that believes in strong defence is what wins basketball games and he said on Tuesday evening, there was no exception for the Spirits’ victory.

“They really play well and it all stems from that (strong defence).”

Asked if the team was tired after their tough tournament play on the weekend he said he may personally be tired but the team was a little bit tired but they were OK.

Other than a victory, what the Spirits learnt out of the game was a couple new plays, and also for the juniors who came up they had to learn a couple of things to fit in.

“But it’s nice to get them some playing time.”

Spirits grade 12 player Madeline Cruz said the pre-game injury had an effect on the game.

“I think in the first quarter they came out pretty strong but we pushed back. We fought to the very end,” Cruz said.

“ Yes I think it was a shock for us. One of her players got injured at the very beginning kinda set a tone for us. You know you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do and we came back and made a good win,” she said.

Morale is not a problem for the Spirits.

“We have such good morale. Everyone is proud of everyone’s accomplishments. It’s really great.”

“I think we’ve been progressing really well. We are learning new things every day. We practice hard and it’s showing.”

About the battle with the Central Cyclones Cruz said she felt the Spirits were right up their in the other cross town rivalry.

For the rest of the season, she is looking forward to more tournaments and league games.

“We gave a lot more things to learn.”

Toilers grade 10 student Scarlett Zoerb said despite the loss the team played a strong game.

“I thought it was pretty good. We ran our plays really well and we passed the ball on the court really well,” Zoerb said.

About the first quarter she said it was a good one for the team and she personally shot well.

Zoerb said that she learnt about shooting at the game.

“I learnt that shooters shoot.”

Winning or losing wasn’t the best part of the game for Zoerb.

“My best part of the game was just having fun on the bench and on the court.”

Despite the loss she described the morale for the Toilers as “amazing.”

“Everyone is so nice. It’s a really good team to be on.”

Peacock Toilers assistant coach Caitlyn Kitts said despite the loss she’s happy with the Toilers’ play.

“I’m so proud of the girls. I’m so proud to see how far they’ve come. Now that we have played the first time we played at the beginning of the season and we came within eight points,” Kitts said.

She said the first game against the Spirits was not a good showing for the Toilers but Tuesday evening was a big night for the team Kitts said.

“I’m really happy with their ability to work cohesively. We’ve really been working on setting a balance with running set place and just playing basketball. We’re playing basketball like cutting, passing and making good individual decisions. That was something we struggled with at the beginning of the year, but we’re much better at.”

The team was seen as being highly cohesuve.

“That (cohesiveness) was really emphasized when we switched to a man defence tonight. That was something we’ve been working really hard on in practice on and that really shone through.”

The teams communication has also improved Kitts said.

“ I’m so impressed how much of a transition has improved on both ends of the court. Getting down and scoring quick baskets and then getting back. And then stopping their transition.”

“I think if we can lock it up for a while game we’re going to be a pretty hard force.”

A major key to the loss was the Spirits being able to stop the Toilers transition game in the second half just allowing them as many baskets as they could’ve sunk.

The Scoresheet