- Reaction score
- 2
- Points
- 410
http://www.saultstar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1428394&auth=Sun%20Media
Royal Military College women's hoops team earns its first-ever win, ends 128-game losing skid
By Sun Media 10 Feb 2009
Royal Military College women's hoops team earns its first-ever win, ends 128-game losing skid
By Sun Media 10 Feb 2009
Some screamed. Some cried. Some just jumped for joy.
Members of the Royal Military College women's basketball team had every right to celebrate long and hard last night after the Paladins broke a 128-game losing streak to record their first regular season win in school history.
RMC beat the York Lions 64-61 in Ontario University Athletics play recently, notching its first win in the fourth-last game of its sixth season of play.
"I just started yelling at the top of my lungs (when the buzzer sounded)," said RMC forward Sharlene Harding, a 34-year-old mother of two who returned to school to complete her master's degree in war studies this season and played a starring role Friday night.
"The whole gym just exploded. The men's team was yelling, parents were yelling. People were jumping, hugging and crying. It was crazy."
Harding, a former Queen's Golden Gael who was an assistant coach with RMC for the past five years before playing this season, had 25 points and 12 rebounds in the historic win.
RMC, 0-18 on the season heading into play last night, led by 11 at halftime but had the edge whittled down to one in the fourth quarter.
"It was a really long (fourth quarter)," said Harding, who has a five-year-old son named Kingston (her parents were born in Kingston, Jamaica) and a two-year-old daughter named Saba. "It was very stressful the whole time. But we all just said, 'Calm down.'
"At the end, I was just in a bit of awe. I couldn't believe it ... This is the best win ever."
Harding and coach Brad Schur both have been with the program since it began play in 2003.
"There were fountains all over the place, there were a lot of tears," Schur said.
"The biggest thing for me was just seeing how happy the players were. They were like kids in a candy store."
The Paladins planned to go out for a team dinner last night before travelling by bus to Sudbury today for a game tonight against the Laurentian Lady Vees.
"Life is good," Schur said.
"I never had any doubt (the Paladins eventually would win), especially the way we've been playing this year. It was just a matter of time."
Kim Egert of Westport was the third-leading scorer for the Paladins, scoring nine points.