If the Paul Kane Blues want to be the real deal in high school women’s basketball, they have to beat the rival St. Albert Skyhawks in Monday’s pivotal showdown.
Tipoff is 6:15 p.m. at Paul Kane between the Blues, ranked eighth provincially in 4A, and the Skyhawks, last year’s 3A provincial gold medallists and metro Edmonton premier champions. The Skyhawks (5-1) are also ranked No. 1 in 3A.
“Everyone is nervous already. It’s a big game,” said forward Allie Larson after Wednesday’s 68-41 triumph against the Salisbury Sabres in St. Albert. “You can tell obviously it would mean a lot to everyone to win it.”
The Blues are 5-0 in league play and 4-2 in tournament action.
“We’ve worked hard and I guess it’s paying off so far,” said Larson, one of six Grade 12s on the 13-player roster. “We’re happy but we’re not going to let it get to us. We still have a lot of games ahead of us and a lot of work to do.”
All eight premier teams make the playoffs, unlike the last two years when the Blues failed to advance with records of 2-7 and 3-11.
The team to beat is the O’Leary Spartans (4-0), ranked first in 4A. The Blues and Spartans tangle Jan. 31 at O’Leary.
“We’re trying to fine-tune our offences and defences before the playoffs and get all the little things together that have been kind of scrappy the last few games,” Larson said.
Against the undersized Sabres (1-3), the Blues posted leads of 14-9 after the first quarter, 35-19 at halftime and 51-32 after three quarters. The TSN turning point was the timeout called by coach Natasha Hutchinson with 2:01 gone in the match and the Sabres up 5-0. The Blues would go on to score 10 points in a row and never looked back.
“We came out a little slow but through hard work and making some shots we caught up and kept on going,” said Larson.
The transfer student from the John Maland Wildcats, a 3A team from Devon, sank nine of her 14 points in the second quarter.
The game star was Grade 12 post Kelly Fagan with 12 points in the first half and 16 overall. Four of her eight baskets were offensive rebounds. She also blocked a handful of shots and led the Blues in fouls with four.
Production from the backcourt included a pair of threes by Melissa Woolley and seven points by Jennifer Howe.
Up front, Whitney Follette and Sarah Thomas performed admirably at both ends of the court.
“We definitely stepped it up a little bit today from our game the day before,” said Larson.
Her sister Josee, a Grade 10 guard, drained a team-high 13 points in Tuesday’s 77-41 win against the St. Francis Xavier Rams (2-4) in Edmonton. Fagan and the older Larson tacked up 11 apiece. Howe and Brittney Scott had eight apiece. During the holiday break the Blues competed in the Surf and Slam San Diego Hoop Classic. Fagan, Larson and Scott were honoured with game star awards as the Blues finished 1-2. Fagan was also named the team’s MVP in the tournament.
“It was really good. There was a lot of team bonding. We had fun and we learned lots,” said Larson, 17. “All the teams we played were very talented. You could tell they spent a lot more time at it than we do. They kind of outworked us.”
