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Trojans are triumphant
By Brody Mark
Wednesday, November 12, 2008

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Churchill had a game plan, stuck to it and won their second consecutive city title.
The Churchill Trojans allowed just three first-quarter points as they defeated the Hammarskjold Vikings 34-21 Tuesday night to capture the Thunder Bay senior girls basketball championship.
Much like last year‘s title grab, this one came on the road in front of a jam-packed crowd in Hammarskjold‘s small gymnasium.
“It‘s tough every time,” said Trojans coach Dave McCallum about winning away from Churchill. “It‘s definitely a blessing to have kids like we have, who work so hard and come in with such a positive attitude.”
Monday‘s loss to the Vikings came mainly at the hands of Hammarskjold‘s point guard Katie Ulakovic. McCallum singled her out as a player they had to stop and they did just that.
Bench player Caitlin Herman got a rare start Tuesday night. Her assignment: to keep the ball out of Ulakovic‘s hands and she accomplished the feat. And when Herman got a well-deserved rest, Jessica Grochowski and Melissa Armstrong kept up the pressure.
After scoring 17 on Tuesday, Ulakovic only managed three points all game, all of which came in the second half.
“We asked her to do a job defensively,” McCallum said of Herman. “We knew that (Ulakovic) was hot and we didn‘t want to let her beat us. We thought if we kept the ball out of her hands, we could disrupt their flow.”
What came as a surprise was the six points that the defensive-minded Herman put up in the first to give the Trojans a lead they would never lose.
“It was a great start. It gave us confidence and it helped us play better I think,” Herman said. “It was a boost at the beginning of the game.”
When Hammarskjold found their opportunities, they could not count. Even when Churchill found themselves in foul trouble early in both halves, the Vikings could not capitalize. Hammarskjold made good on only 7-of-20 attempts from the charity stripe.
“The long and short of it was we just didn‘t finish our chances,” said Dave Paddington, Hammarskjold‘s head coach. “We have to do that in games like this. We know we‘re playing a strong team, would have been nice to have those chances and put them down.”
A 9-2 run in the third quarter extended Churchill‘s lead to 12 points before Heather Schmidt‘s aggressive play garnered her fourth foul. Once pulled, Hammarskjold seemed to perk up.
Jessica DeHaan scored six of the Vikings‘ subsequent 8-0 run to close the gap to just four with plenty of game left.
All momentum came to a halt, however, when Melissa Verboom, who had been held quiet most of the night, calmly drained a three-pointer to end the run, illicit a huge fist-pump from McCallum and put the Trojans up 25-18.
“I haven‘t really been hitting my shot lately,” said Verboom. “It just hasn‘t been working, so when I hit that three it felt really great.”
The made basket would be the turning point as Churchill would never be in as much danger the remainder of the game.
McCallum says his team will take a much-needed break before preparing for the Ontario AA high school basketball championships Nov. 20-22 here in Thunder Bay.
It‘s not all bad news for Hammarskjold as they will move on to the Northwestern Ontario high school championship. The Vikings will host the best-of-three series against the Dryden Eagles this weekend to see who will move on to provincials.

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