The Girls Varsity Basketball team had a busy week including two games and a Don Petty Championship makeup game. The Bears started out their week with an away game against South Jefferson. Canton has played well defensively the whole year. With their fast guards and a 6-foot-4 Ava Hoy under the basket, teams struggle against them. South Jefferson suffered the same story as Canton held them to only 19 points throughout three quarters.
Canton 52, South Jefferson 33
On the offensive side of the court, Canton had one of their best performances, led by Hoy who had 29 on the night. The Bears tallied 45 points in the first three quarters. Canton shot well from the free throw line going 14/20 on the night and saw five different Bears score. In a low scoring fourth quarter the Bears managed to close the game out with a 52-33 final score.
Malone 61, Canton 39
The Bears then went on the road again this time against Malone. After the first quarter the Huskies were only up 1. It was a well fought, evenly-matched start. Malone came out of the second quarter hot, scoring 20 points and outscoring the Bears by 14. That momentum continued in the second half when the Huskies took off and never looked back. They outscored the Bears by 10 in the third quarter and finished with a 61-39 win and a perfect 100 percent free throw percentage in the fourth. Malone wasn’t the only impressive free throw performance on the night as Canton went 8/10 throughout the game. The Bears were led by Ava Hoy who tallied 21 points and Olivia White netted eight.
Don Petty Championship: Canton 50, Edwards-Knox 44
The Bears capped the week off with a Don Petty tournament Championship game. Due to a winter storm, the Championship game was previously postponed several weeks until this past Saturday. The game started out a little different than usual. Five different players from both teams hit at least one three. Kiana Hogle from Edwards-Knox had three 3-pointers in the first quarter, and it looked like she couldn’t miss. E-K took an early lead with 15 points scored off of three pointers in the first quarter and Canton found themselves down 17-13 after one. The Bears picked up on the fact that E-K could shoot and started playing up to defend it. As a result, they held them to only 9 points in the second and cut the deficit to one point at the half.
Neither team won a quarter by a lot, in fact the biggest difference was four points in the first. But Ava Hoy led the Canton offense as she racked up 12 of her 24 points in the third quarter and went 4/5 from the line. The Bears won the quarter by three and put themselves up a basket heading into the fourth quarter of the title game. Throughout the quarter, EK tried to crawl back into the game but Canton held them off. Four different Bears scored in the fourth as they managed to hang on for an exciting 50-44 victory.
Ava Hoy was named the tournament MVP while Olivia White was named to the all-tournament team. The Bears improved to 9-5 and face off against Massena, Potsdam, and General Brown in the upcoming week.
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