Barrie Royals Shake Off Two Game Losing Streak With Win Over Titans

On February 4, 2013, the Barrie Royals defeated the Advantage Titans by a score of 67-62 in exhibition action of JUEL’s Session 2.

Ball movement, steady shooting from long distance and a hunger to win were all keys to the victory by the Royals in the game that took place in Barrie, ON.

Royals Assistant Coach, Jerrold Vandyk, was quite happy to see the turnaround in his team compared to their previous set of games.

“Very pleased compared to two weeks ago, with the way we ended, we didn’t have the effort needed to win”, reflected Coach Vandyk, beginning the comparison to his team’s previous losses back on the weekend of. “Today we got contributions from a lot of people and there was constant effort…and ‘no quit’. So, there was a different team from two weeks ago.”

The Royals benefitted from a big performance from Sam Cooper (6’2”, F, Fairfield commit, 2013) who led both teams in scoring and rebounding, posting a 19 point, 14 rebound game. She was a steady source of offence that slashed well to the basket with and without the ball and more importantly cleaned up on the boards, helping to atone for her team’s height disadvantage.

It wasn’t only Cooper that had an eye for the ball. The Royals as a whole outrebounded the Titans by a 58-50 margin.

Also proficient in scoring in this game was Point Guard Alex Hay (5’8”, PG, 2014) who scored 14 points, while Hannah Currie (6’0”, F, UNB commit, 2013) poured in 12 points as the other only other Barrie Royals that scored in double figures.

Regardless of who was finishing, it was good ball movement that was the catalyst for great shooting opportunities. Barrie moved the ball around quite well throughout the game, often seeing possessions where all five players were getting their hands on the ball. It brought on a sense of relief to Coach Vandyk, as the message that he and Head Coach Todd Smith were trying to instill, was finally starting to pay off.

“It’s been the one thing that we’ve really been stressing: Having more patience, moving the ball a lot more and looking to go inside-out. Instead of just coming down and making one or two passes, we want five or six passes and looking to reverse the ball, and I think it really led to some open shots for us. We weren’t forcing a lot of stuff and I think that was the big difference, just having a lot more patience and being set.”

The win helped stop a two game losing streak by the Royals, and saw them end their preseason with a record of 2-2.

The loss dropped the Titans to a similar 2-2 record against JUEL teams in exhibition play.

Leading Scorers

Barrie Royals: Sam Cooper 19pts, 14rbs; Alex Hay 14pts, 5stls; Hannah Currie 12pts, 6rbs
Advantage Titans: McKenzie Sigurdson 16pts, 6rbs, 4stls; Iziegbe Enabulele 13pts, 9rbs; Cheyenne Creighton 7pts, 10rbs 4stls