Phoenix hold off Irish to remain undefeated

By Bill Potrecz - October 14, 2021

Ella O’Connor wasn’t going to let a broken leg stop her from playing her favourite sport.

The 17-year-old, Grade 12 student broke a pair of bones in her leg in August of 2019 playing soccer, but you would never know it based on her performance Thursday.

O’Connor netted a team-high eight points while also running the offence to lead the St. Francis Phoenix past the Notre Dame Fighting Irish 33-27 in a Niagara Catholic Athletic Association senior girls basketball game at ND.

“I broke my fibia and tibia and I have a rod in my leg,” O’Connor said. “I was out for maybe four months.”

O’Connor admitted it took a lot longer than that to get back to 100 per cent.

“It did bother me at first,” she said.

O’Connor, who also plays JUEL for the Pelham Panthers, missed playing at the high school level when the COVID pandemic wiped out all high school sports in 2020.

“Just everything,” she said when asked she missed the most. “I love high school basketball. It’s my favourite sport probably.”

The Phoenix made sure O’Connor had the ball in her hands with the game on the line as the Fighting Irish mounted a late comeback attempt.

“She’s just like a very sweet girl, on and off the court,” St. Francis head coach Karly Ruetz said. “Sometimes I wish she’d be a little bit more aggressive on the floor, but she’s great. She’s an awesome player, for sure, and we’re very lucky to have her.”

Ruetz, a former player with the Phoenix, is thrilled to be back on the bench for her second season as head coach after acting as an assistant to former head coach Jono Marcheterre.

“It’s great for them, and for me selfishly too,” she said of the return of high school sports.

The Phoenix, who improved to 4-0, are going with one varsity team this season instead of traditional junior and senior squads after a year off.

“It didn’t really feel like starting from scratch, just because a lot of them had played junior before and Lily (Brown) played senior when she was in Grade 10 the last season before COVID,” Ruetz said. “So it felt very natural, the transition for all of these girls. It probably should have been a harder transition than it was, but they were already in place.”

The Fighting Irish, who were without standout player Thea Lawson who is away on vacation, dropped to 1-2 with the loss.

“We’ve been playing better defence as of late,” Irish coach Pat O’Leary said. “I think our defence will take care of itself, we just need to score. We’re coming along in that department but we fell a little short today.”

O’Leary, who formerly coached at St. Francis before returning to his alma mata six years ago, felt for the athletes last year.

“They’re missing out on the high school experience that we love so much and that’s why we became teachers,” he said. “In that sense it was sad. I have four kids at home and I could see that they didn’t enjoy it.

“I know they’re excited just getting back to some semblance of normal.”

STATS PACK

Phoenix 33 Fighting Irish 27

BPSN Star of the Game: St. Francis guard Ella O’Connor with eight points while running the offence.

For the St. Francis Phoenix: O’Connor 8; Sara Meshia 6; Ava Hitchcock 5; Lilly Brown 4; Garbielle Otta 4; Mikayla Wallace 4; Celine Zaroda 2.

For the Notre Dame Fighting Irish: Kylie Brousseau 10; Ella Peters 4; Nicole Dixon 3; Abbey Grande 3; Olivia Bittman 2; Kyra Digaetano 2; Jaylin Popovic 2; Maya Belcastro 1.