By Larry Moko
The Bishop Tonnos Titans withstood a determined late-stage comeback attempt to earn a victory at the 2025 Golden Horseshoe Athletic Conference girls' high school basketball final.
Playing at Oakville's St. Ignatius of Loyola gym, Tonnos defeated the Hawks, 54-46, Thursday.
The Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic representatives held a 40-22 third-quarter lead before Loyola narrowed the gap to just four points with 45 seconds remaining.
With the win, the Titans advance to OFSAA's Triple A championship tournament Nov. 20-22 in Sarnia.
"The game has so many peaks and valleys," Tonnos coach Len Moccia said. "When you're up by 18 points you think you've closed the door. Then they open it. They make an adjustment."
Centre Nikki Rupcic of Loyola stole the ball and drove to the hoop for her team's last basket. But on their final three possessions, the Titans replied with two successful foul shots out of four attempts sandwiched around Addison Turkstra's steal and basket.
"We haven't seen a press in a while," Moccia said. "So that gave us a little trouble. Nobody in our league really put a lot of pressure on us, full-court anyways.
"We keep our composure. We don't panic. It showed again today."
Bridget Dinning and Jahvaya Appiah paced the Titans attack with 17 and 14 points, respectively. Avery Hedley contributed 10 points, while Turkstra chipped in with eight and Olivia Tecu had five.
Kynbi Oni (12) and Ayla Russell (11) were the top scorers for Loyola.
"We were facing quite a deficit," Loyola coach James Mojica said. "We have the last couple of weeks, as well, to get to this point. A couple of days ago we were down 12 in the fourth quarter and were able to come back from that."
Loyola got past the Corpus Christi Longhorns in the Halton Catholic final before eliminating the Garth Webb Chargers in a GHAC semifinal.
Tonnos trailed 9-6 at the end of the first quarter before Dinning and Appiah provided a scoring spark that enabled the Titans to break out of a sluggish start and grab a 28-20 halftime advantage.
"Bridget got elbowed early on and played the whole game with a loose tooth," the Tonnos coach said. "She wouldn't come out. That shows our senior leadership right there."
Appiah, who won a junior championship at BT last year, has impressed in her senior debut season. Said Moccia: "Every day I tell her, 'I don't care if you're in Grade 10, you belong here'. She's probably one of the best on-ball defenders when we're in man-to-man that I've ever seen. I can't say enough about her."
In going 13-1 overall this season, Tonnos has passed the ball extremely well.
"Our players are very unselfish," Moccia said. "And they are so good at receiving feedback and applying it on the next play."
It will be Moccia's first trip to OFSAA. He said he hopes the Titans will be seeded in the top half of the 16-team field.
With its medal success at OFSAA over the years, Moccia says the Hamilton Catholic league is "battle tested" at the provincial high school level.
"We played a very good team in Tonnos," Mojica said. "We wish them the best of luck."
Photos by R.F. (Bob) Butrym, RFB Sport Photography
More photos on the HWCDSB Athletics Facebook page here
