The Stonewall Rams junior varsity girls basketball team continues to roll through the season, reclaiming first place in the Winnipeg Tier 2 standings with a decisive victory over the Portage Collegiate Saints last week.
Stonewall Rams’ JV girls’ Katie Braid is one of her team’s top scorers. The Rams defeated the Portage Saints 53-26 in Stonewall on Feb. 17
Stonewall’s only regular-season loss had come against Portage on Feb. 4, but the Rams responded Tuesday with a 53-26 win on home court.
Katie Braid led a balanced offence with 12 points, while Sara Vande added 10. Drea Fournier and Avery Patrick chipped in nine and eight points respectively.
“They were missing a couple of players too, but the girls were very focused going into the game, and actually very excited for the challenge that the game brought,” said coach Jason Cassils. “We’ve improved a lot since the time that we played Portage, back in Portage, so it was good to see.”
The win improved Stonewall to 7-1 in league play. The Rams followed it up Wednesday with a 68-8 victory over the Elmwood Giants, pushing their record to 8-1 and their season point differential to +272.
Despite the strong results, Cassils said the team is still building toward the postseason.
The Rams will attempt to secure first place in the regular-season finale Tuesday against the Grant Park Pirates before turning their attention to the JV AAA Urban Provincial qualifier later in the week.
Stonewall reached provincials last season, finishing seventh in Dauphin — experience the coach believes is paying off.
“That was really good last year because we were really young,” said Cassils. “We had a few grade tens, but we were quite young, so that experience is helping this year for sure. Those grade 10’s can step up to be leaders, and now the grade nines are kind of doing the same thing. They have progressed really well.”
Nine of the team’s 13 players are Grade 10 students, giving the club both maturity and depth — something Cassils says has been crucial, especially with injuries affecting the lineup.
“It’s very important to have depth and especially right now we’ve got some injuries that have kind of hit our lineup a little bit, so it’s nice that we’ve got the depth and girls can kind of go in different roles and still execute well. It’s a great group of girls, they work well with each other and they all get along, so it’s really nice to see. Nice to see the cohesion and the depth. It’s just so important to have when you got anybody that can come off the bench and score or play their defensive role or whatever their role is.”
Stonewall closes the Winnipeg Tier 2 regular season Tuesday with a 4:30 p.m. tip-off at Grant Park High School.
Provincial Round One begins Thursday, with the Rams receiving a bye to Friday due to their ranking. They will host the winner of the St. John’s-Ravenscourt Eagles and Springfield Sabres at 7:45 p.m., with the winner advancing to provincials March 12-14 at Linden Christian School in Winnipeg.
