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Jon Kuiperij Sports Editor sports@oakvillebeaver.com Sports 33 | Friday, October 16, 2015 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com "Connected to your Community" With talented players such as Holy Trinity's Tiffany McNeil (left photo) and Loyola's Steph Findlay (right photo, with ball), Oakville is home to three strong senior girls' basketball teams this season. Three-time Halton champion Loyola has already been defeated by King's Christian Collegiate, which then lost the following day to Holy Trinity. | Left photo by Justin Greaves -- Oakville Beaver/Right photo by Nikki Wesley -- Oakville Beaver Triple trouble: Oakville's three girls' basketball powers Loyola, Holy Trinity and King's Christian Collegiate all have Halton title, OFSAA aspirations by Jon Kuiperij Beaver Sports Editor F or decades, Oakville teams' roads to the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations girls' basketball championships came to a dead end in Hamilton. Ten of the last 14 provincial AAAA titles have been won by Hamilton schools. St. Mary's claimed four gold medals between 2002-06, and St. Thomas More won three in a row from 2011-13. And when St. Mary's wasn't winning AAAA titles, it was often because it was claiming AAA supremacy instead. The Crusaders have won the last four AAA titles, adding to the five gold medals they earned between 1992-2000. All told, St. Mary's, St. Thomas More and Bishop Ryan -- all schools that are in the Golden Horseshoe Athletic Conference, which Halton teams have had to win in order to advance to OFSAA -- have won 15 provincial girls' basketball titles in the past 19 seasons. Last year, however, marked the first big crack in Hamilton's GHAC armour. Oakville's Loyola Hawks -- long dominant in Halton, but never able to advance to OFSAA -- defeated St. Thomas More 58-49 to win the GHAC championship and went on to earn provincial AAAA bronze. Loyola's lost two key players from that squad this season -- national under-19 teamer Jaelyne Kirkpatrick (now at the University of Illinois) and fellow guard Sam Pocrnic (Mohawk College) -- but still managed to upset St. Thomas More, the third-ranked team in the province, 58-57 at a recent tournament. But just when it may look like Loyola may have an easier time advancing to OFSAA once again (especially with GHAC getting two entries in this year's tournament, although the AAAA and AAA divisions are now combined), two other Oakville teams are emerging as challengers as well. The King's Christian Collegiate Cavaliers snapped Loyola's 37game regular-season winning streak last week, defeating the Hawks 64-54. And just one day after King's planted its flag atop the Halton hill, the Holy Trinity Titans dumped the Cavaliers, 51-42. It's setting up as a three-horse race in Oakville of not only potential Halton champions, but squads with GHAC and OFSAA aspirations as well. Trinity entered play yesterday (Thursday) with a 5-0 mark, with Loyola and King's at 3-1. Loyola buoyed by another upset of St. Thomas More Considering the Hawks lost their starting backcourt from last year's provincial bronze-winning squad, it wouldn't have been surprising to take the team take a few steps back this fall. However, early results indicate that might not be the case. Loyola repeated as champions of the St. Francis tournament in St. Catharines last month and upset St. Thomas More in its first game at the St. Mary's Tipoff Classic. "It definitely brought up our confidence," Hawks forward Kiana Steinauer said of the win over the Knights, which she secured with a buzzer-beating layup. "We had doubts, obviously, but we knew we could potentially be even better than we were last year. We just have to work together as a team and not play as individuals." And though the Hawks' regular-season winning streak ended last week -- Loyola's only Halton loss since Oct. 31, see Academic on p.34