by Neil Nicholson
Coach of the Riverdogs
OTTAWA — The Upper Valley Basketball Association (UVBA) U19 Women’s Riverdogs Basketball season ended with a back-to-back weekend of some very exciting games and action packed games.
This was the first year that the UVBA formed a U19 girls team, with players coming from Renfrew, Whitewater Region, Laurentian Valley and Pembroke to field enough for a team. They joined the West End Basketball League out of Ottawa which organized a set of doubl-header games every second weekend from November through to the end of February. It was a bit of travelling but well worth the effort.
The U19 Riverdogs went undefeated through the regular season and finished top of the league with 12 wins. This placed them in the Division 1 playoff pool with two other highly competitive teams from Nepean and Kanata. The playoff games were highly contested and over the four games played through the final two weekends the Riverdogs had its first loss and with it they lost their chance for the bye to the finals.
The Riverdogs went on to the semi-finals against the Ottawa Next Level team. It was a close game with two very evenly matched squads. With 14 seconds left in the game, the Riverdogs were down by 3 pts. Through some extraordinary effort, there was a turnover and the Riverdogs deficit was reduced to 1 point 7 seconds left in the game and there was yet another steal. In a valiant effort to stop the Riverdogs layup, and with only 1 second left on the clock, shooter Eve Denault was fouled and put to the foul line for two shots. Although the first shot was missed, the second went in and they were in overtime. The momentum saw the Riverdogs through overtime and they finished with a solid win in the semi-final, 49-41.
After a 90 min break, the Riverdogs moved onto their next opponent in the league final game — the Nepean Blue Devils. Tired and beat up after such a close and extended match in the semi’s, the Riverdogs continued to battle to keep up with the fresh team. The game finished in regular time, but the women could hold their heads high. In this second match of the day, they lost by a mere 2 points and knew they had given it all out on the floor that day. Final score was 36-34 and the Riverdogs took home a silver medal.
The season was over and was thoroughly enjoyed by all. A team had come together and had a season they will remember. They are all looking forward to next year!
Some final stats of the season: 16 games played — 14 wins, 2 loses, no ties. The team scored 762 points over the 16 games and only allowed 513 points to be scored against them! Two players scored over 100 points through the season: Eve Denault at 107 and Ryan Cloutier at 104.
