LONDON CYO TOURNAMENT FEB 3RD TO THE 5TH

The second tournament of 2012 for the Major Bantam Blacks was held in London from Feb 3rd to the 5th.

The first game was played on the Friday evening against Guelph which Lightning lost 41 to 22.

The Major Bantam Blacks regrouped and played their second game on Saturday against Strathroy.  Lightning cruised to a  51 to 23 win in that game.

The last game for our team was played against Brantford which Lightning ended up losing 40 to 29.

With Lightning’s one win and two loss record they did not advance to the medal round.

Even with the Major Bantam Blacks not advancing in this tournament the girls still took all the games played as learning tools to build on and look forward to playing in the next tournament which is Hoopdome being held Feb. 24th to the 26th.

KW LIGHTNING HOME TOURNAMENT JAN 20TH TO 22ND

From Jan 20th to the 22nd the Major Bantam Black’s AA/A home tournament was held at Rockway.

Our team opened the tournament with the first game against Stratford. This was a team our girls had not played before so our team beating Stratford 23-16 in this first game was a great start to the tournament for Major Bantam Blacks.

The second game was on Saturday morning against Grimsby. Unfortunately Grimsby took that game 46-35. Lightning tried a few times to make a comeback but Grimsby held on for the win.

The last game of the round robin for Major Bantam Black was against Blessed Sacrament. Our girls played very well and took that game 36 to 21.

Since the Major Bantam Black’s tournament had 12 teams playing for the gold medal, the teams had to be split into  three divisions containing four teams each. In order to advance to the medal round a team had to win their division. Even thought the Major Bantam Blacks finished with two wins & one loss our team still finished second in our division and just missed out on the wild card spot by four points. Althought our team did not advance the girls still had a great time.

Congratulations to London for winning the Gold medal!

This tournament was not possible if not for the help of all the parent volunteers….THANKS!!!!

Exhibition Mini Two Game Tournament – Woodstock – Dec. 17th

On December 17th the Major Bantam Blacks participated in a mini two game exhibition tournament in Woodstock.

The first game was against the home team Woodstock Chill.  The Lightning held the lead through most of the game but Woodstock fought back in the last quarter and eventually won 40-35.

The second game was against Strathroy Spirit and our Major Bantam Blacks held the lead throughout the whole game and eventually won 32-23.

These two exhibition games along with the MUMBA tournament games have helped the team and coaching staff in seeing what areas of the game the team needs to be working on more to improve. This will help in preparation for the Major Bantam Blacks next tournament they play in which will be their own home tournament being held later in January.

MUMBA! 2nd place! – first tournament of the season(Dec 10th to 11th)

The Major Bantam Black's first tournament of this season was the MUMBA tournament held in Markham Ont on Dec 10th &11th.

Going into this tournament the team was very positive and looking to continue their winning ways from their gold medal performance in the OBA's from the previous season.

The first game of the tournament was against London and our team came out ahead 26-20 in this close game.

In the second game our  team played Whitby Wildcats and had a very strong performance winning easily 46-22.

In the third game the Lightning had to play the home team MUMBA. After Lightning held the lead in the first half of the game the MUMBA team came back in the second half and defeated our team in a close 37-35 final result. Based on a win/loss ratio in round robin play our team finished first in the A-pool and still qualified to advanced to the gold medal game the next day.

The gold medal game was played against Scarborough Blues-Grant. Unfortunately our team lost that final game 60-21 against a very strong Scarborough team. It was still great to come away with a silver medal for the first tournament of the season!

Great job girls!!!

LAST SEASON’S OBA SUCCESS IN APRIL 2011

Major Bantam Black team's success began last season as the Bantam #2 team with their thrilling OBA Bantam finish in April of 2011 winning a gold medal in divisions 6 which they were ranked at the bottom of that division at the start of the tournament.

With their hail mary shot from just over centre with 0.7 seconds remaining in the semifinal game( see youtube link below ) to win and then to go on to win gold in the final game against Port Colburn in the last seconds of that game marked a turning point for the team in learning never to give up. They all learnt to dig deep to give 100% and realized what it takes to play and win as a team. 

This energy was carried over to this year's Major Bantam Black team.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-z1ltIPKJw

Allan