Ken Gould was a former star of the St. Thomas University basketball program in the late 60s and was recently inducted into their hall of fame. In honour, the women’s basketball team named their exhibition tournament after the hall of famer.
This was the women’s first home tournament in years and gave the players a chance to connect during the exhibition tournament.
“It was really exciting to have our own tournament, with our home crowd behind us the whole time,” said co-captain Ashley Bawn.
The tournament consisted of four teams: STU, Nova Scotia Agricultural College Holland College and Ontario’s Redeemer College. Besides Redeemer, the teams in this tournament were all from the ACAA division,and will be seeing a lot of each other this season.
Seeing as this was the first home game for STU since they won the ACAA championship this past year, it was the perfect time for the unveiling of last year’s banner.
“It was really nice to see all of our hard work from last year being recognized with the banner being hung up on the wall, but at the same time it was good to put all of that behind us and begin to work on putting another one up this season,” Bawn said.
The tournament kicked off with STU against Nova Scotia Agricultural College. The Tommies controlled the entire game with rookie Kelly Vass exploding for 25 points in her home opener.
After the match, the school put together a ceremony hosted by Athletics Director Mike Eagles, in honor of Ken Gould for everything he has done for the basketball and alumni programs at the university.
The Tommies second game was against the Redeemer Royals of the Ontario league. This was the first time STU had the chance to play against the Royals, since they don’t share the same division. J
The Royals were no match for the Tommies high powered offense. STU went on to win the game 75 to 11, allowing only three points to the Royals in the second half.
The Tommies played a well balanced game at both ends of the court, with Brittany Gillis leading the way with 14 points and Hilary Goodine chipping in with 12.
“Although it was just exhibition, it was really great to see the team gel together and to see everyone get minutes over the weekend,” said third-year post Kathleen McCann.
The undefeated Holland College Hurricanes came against the undefeated Tommies, for the chance at the title in the final game. The Tommies dominated the game on route a 79-33 victory. Kelly Vass and Ashley Bawn were named tournament all stars.
The Tommies basketball program thanked everyone who was involved in making this happen – especially Ken Gould. They hope to make the tournament an annual event at St. Thomas.
