Posted: Mar 06, 2018

ACAC Womens Basketball Champion St. Mary’s University Lightning

by ACAC Sports Writer Curtis J. Phillips

Three times the charm for the St. Mary's Lightning women's basketball team.

After playing the bridesmaid last year 2016-2017 to the Lethbridge Kodiaks and then in 2015-2016 to the NAIT Ooks, the Lightning made it to the alter and are now champions of the 2017-2018 Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) Women's Basketball Championship ,which concluded Saturday evening at SAIT Campus Centre in Calgary, Alberta.

St. Mary's beat the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) No. 14 ranked Medicine Hat Rattlers 77-66.

Not bad for a school that had entered the ACAC only a few short years ago.

Like majority of new teams coming into the ACAC, the Lightning women's basketball side had to be patient as their inaugural year resulted in one win, while the following year 2013-2014 saw them winless in 20 tipoffs.

Baby steps were made in 2014-2015 with the arrival of a new head coach in Steve Shoults and the transfer of student/athlete Montana Romeril from MacEwan University Griffins, where she had averaged 10 points in nine games during her rookie season.

Added to the mixture was the powerful presence of Mary Jean Ritchie, who would average roughly 10 rebounds per game for three seasons.

Those baby steps hit quick strides as the Lightning would make it to the ACAC gold medal game back-to-back years, losing to NAIT Ooks 69-66 in 2015-2016 and then the powerhouse Lethbridge Kodiaks 85-54, with the Kodiaks going on to claim the 2016-2017 CCAA crown.

This year the Lightning's first goal was to make it the ACAC playoffs for a fourth consecutive appearance.

"Our goal was to get to the ACAC championship and win the ACAC gold," said Shoults. "We believed in ourselves. Our next goal was to go back to the CCAA Championships (March 14-17, 2018 at Mount Allison University in Sackville. New Brunswick) and winning the ACAC will give us a good seeding."

With the graduation Ritchie last season, Shoults said that 5-foot-10, fifth-year post Megan Trisevic, "Filled that role and she had a great season."

He added: "This year we had our ups-and -downs and struggles with some of the kids trying to find their roles on the team. This year we were a lot deeper with more depth."

In the opening game of the post season, the Lightning defeated the Keyano College Huskies 65-60.

Shoults felt that against the Huskies, ranked No. 4 in the CCAA polls with a record of 18 wins and 6 losses, experience would be the difference.

"We felt that we matched up against them really well. Megan (Trisevic) would give their dual posts (Danielle MacLellan and Moiyan Toure) a little trouble and she can defend and run the floor well.

"Having had been in the gold medal game the last two years and in that they were a much younger team...we knew we could do well. They are well-coached by Dwayne Vigilance. We knew that this would be the most challenging game."

Emily Wagner would have a game high 22 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists in the victory.

In the semi-final, it was a 67-49 decision against the Lakeland College Rustlers.

Lightning, who had a 39-21 halftime lead, saw Romeril swish 22 points while adding 6 steals.

Despite the play of ACAC Women's Player of the Year Kennedy Were, with 12 rebounds and 17 boards, the Rattlers fell 77-66 in their quest for gold.

Romeril had 23 points, 3 steals and 4 assists.

Of Romeril's role with the Lightning, Shoults replied: "The championship game shows what she has meant. We were only up a basket heading into the fourth quarter (50-48 at 8:27) and she comes out and makes four straight threes in the next five minutes."

Romeril, a two-time conference ACAC All Star with CCAA All Canadian status in 2015-2016, would score 18 of her teams last 27 points.

"We have had good success against her (Romeril) this year during the regular season but in the final game she was unreal," admits Rattlers head coach Clayton Nielsen. "She was hitting threes that were past NBA range and they were not even rattling in. They were straight swishes. She was unconscious."

Medicine Hat, which will also be attending the CCAA Women's Basketball Championships as the ACAC Wildcard, advanced to the ACAC final having beat the Concordia University of Edmonton Thunder 57-53 and the host SAIT Trojans 50-42 in the semi-final.

Of his team's silver medal performance , Nielsen replied: "In the semi-final we beat the host team and then in the final we had to play another team from Calgary. So in a way, we were playing against two teams in their own home city."

The wildcard spots are awarded to CCAA member conferences based on their performance at National Championships over the past three years.

Bronze medal status fell to SAIT Trojans 53-48 against Lakeland College Rustlers.

The ACAC are defending CCAA Women's Basketball Championships with the Lethbridge Kodiaks having had a 27-0 campaign in 2016-2017.