The Paul Kane Blues are not feeling the love after the 4A rankings were released this week in high school men’s basketball.
The Blues failed to make the grade in the latest round after they were listed eighth in the province in the December rankings.
“I’m not going to lie to you; we’re pretty pissed about it. To be completely wiped off the rankings of the top teams didn’t go over well with us and we’re really going to fight to get back there again,” Grade 11 post Tyler Wise told the Gazette after the Blues slam-dunked the St. Thomas Aquinas Thunder 85-36 Thursday at the 21st annual Optimist Showdown in St. Albert.
The only metro Edmonton premier conference team to earn a ranking was the O’Leary Spartans at number 10. The Jasper Place Rebels (second), Harry Ainlay Titans (fourth) and the Ross Sheppard Thunderbirds (sixth) from the Edmonton public league also make the top 10.
The Blues are proud owners of the best record in premier at 5-1 in pool A. Overall they are 10-6 after polishing off the Spruce Grove-based Thunder with ease.
“We’re pretty fortunate to have that record. We’ve played some good games,” Wise said.
The Spartans, on the other hand, are only 3-2 in pool B. Their biggest win in league play was the 47-44 snoozer against the Blues on Jan. 5 at O’Leary.
“We really want to beat O’Leary,” Wise said. “That game was a defensive battle. We just couldn’t knock down the shots.”
In the first game after the exam break, the Blues built up leads of 20-4 after the first quarter, 42-19 at halftime and 60-28 after three quarters against the Thunder.
“We had a bit of a lead at halftime but we really stepped it up in the second half and kind of took it to them,” Wise said. “We’ve still got to be a better free shooting team though. That’s what is going to win us games down the stretch.”
The athletic six-foot-five hoopster sank a team-high 16 points, including 10 in the third quarter. A couple of his low post moves for buckets were highlight-reel material.
Jayden Bordian inked his 10 points in the second quarter, sparked by a pair of three-pointers. Connor Bradley also scored 10 points. Peter McKay, Shane Kolba and Bryce Jouan recorded eight apiece.
It should be clear sailing into the final tonight for the Blues, the top seed in the 16-team men’s draw. Tip off is 6:15 p.m. at Bellerose Composite High School.
“Playing in your home tournament is always fun, especially having some games in our own gym. It gets us pumped up,” Wise said. “We’ve had two hard weeks of practice over the exam break and our goal for this tournament was to run our systems really well and execute our plays.”
The Blues haven’t looked this good since Don Phillips coached the varsity squad to their second-straight metro playoff championship and historic 4A provincial gold-medal victory in 2008.
“It’s going pretty well. We’re working hard in practice and the coaches [Rick Stanley and Marc Dallorto] are liking it but sometimes we do need a little bit of a pick me up from them,” said Wise, 16, one of nine returnees on a very deep 15-man roster. “We’ve still got to learn to come out and play our style of basketball and take it to teams right from the start.”
The next league game for the Blues is Monday versus the Bev Facey Falcons (2-3 in pool B) at 4:45 p.m. at Paul Kane.
“We’re coming into the second part of the season now and we’ve got a chance to get some more wins down the stretch before the playoffs start [Feb. 28].”
