U14 County Clippers are Classic Tournament Champions

The Prince Edward County Clippers U14 Boys downed the ‘Spirits’ and had the best ‘Impact’ to become champions at the fifth annual County Classic Tournament this past weekend, hosted at PECI.

The eight-team tournament consisted of both double-A and single-A teams from all over the province.

The boys started their weekend Friday playing the AA Belleville Spirits coached by Barbara Inrig-Pieterse and Christin Dickenson.

The Clippers report:

With a previous loss earlier in the season to this team, the boys were ready to show them what they were made of and they downed the Spirits 55 – 40. Stephen McGuey led the way scoring 15 points with five three-pointers.

Saturday morning they drew the early game and played the AA Kingston Impact team.

It was a tough game with many lessons learned and a new appreciation for the offensive and defensive drills they had been working on so far this season.

The Clippers lost 73-36.

This didn’t dampen the boy’s spirits though; they went on to beat the AA Ottawa Shooting Stars later that afternoon 63-36, with Cooper Facette-Grondin as top scorer scoring 14 points.

Having secured a spot in the AA finals on Sunday, the boys once again were matched up with the AA Kingston Impact and were looking for revenge.

In the final, the Clippers employed a new defensive strategy which gave the Impact team fits of frustration. The energy from the bench was contagious and Georgie Walcott was instrumental to our success with his consistent defensive pressure.

With less than a minute to go in the game, Kingston tied it up.

With 53 seconds left a defensive rebound by Kieran Young allowed Hayden Blakely to carry the ball down the court and put us up by 2 points to win the game 55-53.

Next up for the boys are two league games on Feb. 2nd vs the Toronto Nets and Guelph Knights.

The Clippers also extended thanks to Sobeys, Metro and No Frills of Picton for generous donations to the team’s canteen.