The Sudbury Jam U15 Girls improved to 6-0 in U16 OBL X League play in late January, sweeping a four game set at Humber College in Toronto. The team followed up pre-Christmas victories over both Nepean and London with an impressive ice-breaker down south, dousing the Flamborough Fire 43-20.
Mireille DiMaio and Emily Lafond combined to score 22 points, while a defense led by the likes of Abby Frick and Heidi Lamothe frustrated the Fire at every turn.
Game two later on Saturday would see the Jam spot Blessed Sacrament from Hamilton an early lead, but using a 10-2 second quarter run to extend their streak to four games with a 45-35 triumph.
Lafond topped the offense with a 16-point outburst, while Grace Smrke, Dylann Mazzuchin and Sami Dunlop Bassett focused on the defensive tenacity that has become a trademark of the Sudbury squad.
Fans on Sunday morning would be treated to a bronze medal provincial rematch from 2016, as the Jam and Caledon Cougars renewed acquaintances. The Cougars started quickly, building up a 15-7 first quarter lead, before Shannon Clarke and the Jam began asserting themselves over the course of the next eight minutes, limiting Caledon to just two points and overtaking their rivals 23-17, as the teams retreated to their dressing rooms.
With the intensity ramping up noticeably in the second half, the teams exchanged the lead on multiple occasions, with an "only too fitting" final second sequence that would see the game sent to overtime courtesy of a clutch basket from Sudbury's Claudia Pellerin.
It was deja vu all over again just minutes later as Pellerin once again forced an extra session, completing a well executed play as time expired on the first overtime period. Several key stops in the second OT segment allowed the Jam to eventually wrestle a great character victory from the Cougars, with the scoreboard reading 60-55.
Pellerin enjoyed an outing to remember, leading the way with 24 points, with Clarke and Delaney Bourget chipping in with nine apiece. With limited rest between games and first place in league play on the line, the locals responded with an outstanding effort, outscoring the Kingston Impact 51-37 to close out the weekend.
Bourget (11), Pellerin (11), Dunlop Bassett (9) and Mazzuchin (7) all contributed to a nicely balance Sudbury attack as coach Bruce Bourget and company prepare to resume OBL action on the weekend of Feb. 25 - 26.
