Jasper Place High School – The St. Albert Skyhawks settled for fourth place at the REB Invitational Basketball Tournament after falling short in Saturday’s playoff against the O’Leary Spartans.
“We deserved to get this far,” Grade 12 point guard Hilary Annich told the Gazette after the 62-60 loss in the women’s third-place showdown. “We wanted to show that St. Albert High, a 3A school, can actually play in this tournament against other 4A schools so we stepped up. We wanted to win and we played awesome.”
The Skyhawks basically played one terrible quarter in the entire tournament and it cost them a spot in the final.
“I’m just so impressed with our team in general,” Annich said. “Being at the REB is such a big deal and to do what we did was amazing.”
The Skyhawks tipped-off the eight-team draw Thursday with a resounding effort against Jasper Place Rebels. The 60-57 score flattered the host team as the Skyhawks punished the Rebels defensively. Tournament all-star Shelby Hucul, a Grade 11 guard/wing, had a big game offensively with pivotal buckets and momentum shifting plays in the second half.
“I was really proud with the way we played,” Annich said.
In Friday’s semifinal the Skyhawks never recovered from a sluggish start en route to a 71-61 loss to the Spruce Grove Panthers. It was 19-6 Panthers after the opening 10 minutes.
“We just had a really bad first quarter,” said Annich, who finished the game with 10 points. “After that we played better and we might have won it had it been a closer score in the first quarter.”
Hucul scored 10 of her 12 points in the second quarter. Kendall Lydon, a Grade 10 newcomer who is playing valuable minutes, sank 11 points, including three three-pointers.
Against O’Leary, a metro Edmonton league foe that has dominated the Skyhawks during their stint in the premier conference, they hung tough against the 4A school before bowing out late in the match. Trailing 20-19 after the first quarter, the Skyhawks rallied to lead 33-27 at halftime and 43-41 after three quarters.
“We played really good. We were ahead for most of the game,” said Annich, who racked up 13 of her team-high 24 points in the second half. “Everyone really got into it. It was the last game of the REB and we really wanted to do well.”
The Spartans were led by Adut Bulgak, a Grade 11 six-foot-three post. The tournament all-star lit up the Skyhawks for 28 points, including 12 in the decisive fourth quarter.
Throughout the entertaining affair the Skyhawks deployed the tough-as-nails Courtney Gogowich (Grade 12), a gutsy Katie Burak (Grade 10) and the underrated Jenn Larison (Grade 12) in the middle to help keep Bulgak under wraps. The five-foot-seven Gogowich and the five-foot-eight Burak ran into foul trouble while defending against O’Leary’s most dangerous player.
“We’re short so it’s surprising how we can play against all these 4A schools and keep up with them and bother them. They can’t even handle our pressure on defence,” Annich said.
The Skyhawks also dialed up eight three-pointers: three by Zoe Downing, one of three Grade 10s that cracked the senior team’s roster, and three by Annich, a third-year Skyhawk and 2008/09 MVP.
A three-ball by Annich with 5:28 to play made it 50-46 for the Skyhawks. After her bucket with 2:47 remaining extended the lead to 58-52, the Spartans roared back with nine straight points. The backbreaker was a three by Alysha Zuczek with 1:21 to go to put the Spartans up 59-58. Bulgak also added a pair of foul shots during the scoring spree with 30 seconds left after Lydon rattled the rim with a shot while driving the lane.
Andrea Heavener also bounced a three-ball off the hoop in the late stages with the Skyhawks trailing by three.
It was 62-58 when Heavener closed out the scoring with a shot from the corner with seven ticks on the clock. On the inbound play by the Spartans, Heavener almost picked off the ball but just missed.
The loss left the Skyhawks with an overall record of 6-2 (2-0 in premier and 4-2 in tournaments, highlighted by a recent undefeated showing in Medicine Hat).
“We have high expectations for ourselves. We want to make provincials. We expect the best out of us so that’s how we carry ourselves and that’s how we’re going to play,” said Annich, 17, one of eight returning Skyhawks from the team’s fifth straight trip to the 3A provincials as the Edmonton zone winners for the third year in a row.
After the tournament the Skyhawks flew to Cuba for a seven-day basketball adventure. Their itinerary included training sessions and scrimmages against young athletes identified as potential candidates of the Cuba national basketball program.
“It’s a great way for us to start off the season,” Annich said. “We have a lot of new people on our team so it’s going to be great for all of us to get to know each other better, as well as practice and play against the Cubans.”
