Two of the three Kingston-area teams won their games on the opening day of Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations girls basketball championship tournaments Thursday.
At the AAA competition in Windsor, the Holy Cross Crusaders held off a fourth-quarter rally to defeat Sarnia Northern 46-45. The Kingston Area champion Crusaders, the 14th seed at the tournament, led 29-13 at halftime but that cushion was cut to 35-26 going into the fourth quarter, where Northern outscored Holy Cross 19-11 but fell just shy of completing the comeback.
Mary Besselink scored 16 points for Holy Cross, while Avery Bathe-Manard led No. 8 Northern with nine points.
The victory sends Holy Cross into a second-round contest Friday at 10:30 a.m. against 10th-seeded Winston Churchill of St. Catharines, 41-21 loser to No. 9 Toronto St. Joseph’s in its first-round match Thursday.
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The La Salle Black Knights received a rude introduction to the double-A tournament in Kingsville, where top seeded Timmins Theriault posted a 45-16 victory. Theriault blanked No. 12 La Salle 13-0 in the first quarter and led 26-4 at halftime.
It’s the second year in a row that La Salle has bumped up against Theriault in the first round at OFSAA, and the second-straight time they’ve been given a sound beating. This time, Abbey Hetherington led La Salle with 11 points.
The Knights will resume play Friday at 1:30 p.m.
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Taylor Bresee scored 12 points to lead the Rideau District Lions to a 50-29 win over Penetanguishine in first-round play at the single-A championship, also in Windsor. Rideau, the No. 4 seed, will play No. 13 Rainy River Friday at 10 a.m. Rainy River lost its opening game Thursday, 53-32 to seventh-seeded Windsor Lajeunesse.