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Knights begin journey with home win

Through the dreary, rainy days of December, the St. Thomas More Knights have held onto one thought to keep them warm.
Brooklyn Monks
St. Thomas More’s Brooklyn Monks, shown taking a jump shot during last year’s playoff run, is a big part of this year’s lineup. The Knights came away from last week’s STM senior girls Chancellor basketball tournament with a 58-48 triumph over Terry Fox in the final. Monks and Gigi Gaspar were named first team all-stars, while guard Cassiel Penalosa was selected the tourney MVP.

Through the dreary, rainy days of December, the St. Thomas More Knights have held onto one thought to keep them warm.

It wasn’t just the idea of fusing their individual skills and talents into a well-rounded force on the senior girls AA basketball circuit, or honing a system through a grueling tourney schedule, including one this past week on home turf.

The Knights are committed completely to the ‘now’ – which included Tuesday’s game against independent league rival Crofton House, past the NOW’s deadline.

It’s not a distraction that they’re hanging their dreams on, but a basketball tour that starts this week with a flight to Hawaii. They’ll take their game to the next level while soaking up the warmth of a Pacific paradise. In Maui the Knights will brave the warmer weather and that island’s basketball culture all to build a stronger bond as a team.

Yes, they’ll enjoy it.

“I can tell you I’m looking forward to it, and the girls are really excited about it,” remarked co-coach Jen Farano. “We’ve been planning for it for over a year, we’ve scheduled four games in Maui and we’ve got plans for what we’ll do outside the gym.”

They’ll be spending a lot of time together, and if their bonds are strong now, they’ll only get tighter in a trip that puts them in different situations and playing against a variety of different teams.

You couldn’t script a better start to the season. For a group that considers the gym their second home, the journey ahead will be a chance to play tourist but also to extend that family brand.

 “They are friends on and off the floor,” noted Farano. “They are always around each other, new players and the returning (players). There’s no separation, no cliques. When we asked them what was important about this year the players picked ‘family.’”

So the 10-day trip to Hawaii, which will see them volunteer at a Hawaiian homeless shelter on the Sunday before returning home on Dec. 23, will be time well spent.

They demonstrated this past week how committed they are to each other by going undefeated through the pack at the St. Thomas More senior girls Chancellor tourney.

By edging the Terry Fox Ravens 58-48 on Saturday in the final, STM found a way to hold back a fairly formidable opponent. Most of the game was a tight battle, with the Knights fending off the PoCo squad’s rallies. Up by nine after three quarters, the home team witnessed Fox’s intensity ramp up and pull to within four points with 6:30 to play.

“We had to call a timeout then. We told the girls that they had to get back out there and focus on what they do well, and not let other teams dictate the game,” Farano said.

Having lost a key post player in the first quarter to injury, when Grade 12 Shiloh Corrales Nelson

appeared to turn her ankle, the Knights faced the last portion of the game juggling foul trouble as well as a feisty opponent.

STM responded, however, and slowly got that margin a little longer. Brooklyn Monks, the team’s tallest player at six-foot-one, was doing a good job on helping contain the Ravens’ two six-foot-tall forwards, but would foul out with just under a minute to play.

It fell on a lot of players’ shoulders in the second half, and by the final buzzer all shared in the win.

Point guard Cassiel Penalosa, who sat out last season as a new transfer student, was named the tourney MVP.

“(Penalosa) kept the tempo of the game up and was quite the engine on the floor,” said the coach. “She was a big part of our transition on offence and defence.”

Picking up first all-star team honours were Monks and Grade 11 guard Gigi Gaspar, while Gigi’s twin sister Bella was named the Offensive Player of the Tournament, scoring 16 points in the win over Fox.

“(The Gaspars) were just incredible. Gigi had just one practice with us, because both were playing volleyball (for STM),” remarked Farano of the twins who helped the volleyball squad place third at the B.C.s a week earlier. “Bella

is just so dedicated. Even with her volleyball responsibilities, she’d show up in the gym daily to shoot. She’d do minimum 200 shots in the morning and said that there was no way she wasn’t going to be ready (for basketball).”

On Monks, Farano said the senior has shown the skill and versatility required when it comes to being one of the team’s taller players.

“(Monks) was dominant on the boards all weekend long. She defended really well and gave us someone who could battle with (Terry Fox’s) big players.”

A day earlier, the Knights advanced to the final by topping Centennial 78-56 – a score that didn’t quite reflect the level of difficulty the Coquitlam school and it’s star player Grace Killins presented.

“(Killins) is a fabulous player and already committed to SFU (for next season),” said Farano. “We know with great players like that you can only contain their options, you can’t stop them from scoring. She was going to score but we did a good job of keeping her teammates off the scoreboard.”

Farano, who has co-coached with Joe Thierman for the past four seasons, said last year’s ninth-place finish is something the returning players definitely are aiming to build on.

“They definitely want to compete in the provincials but getting out of the Lower Mainlands is going to be tough,” she said. “We have kids who are pretty committed to the program, who are focused and goal oriented.

“They are a tenacious group, and they are all about getting after it.”