The 23rd win in 26 games was the best of the bunch for the SAPEC champion Lorne Akins Gators.
“It’s been a long road but every minute has been worth it,” co-captain Lauren Walter declared after the Gators hung tough to defeat the Vincent J. Maloney Marauders 42-37 in Friday’s tier 1 basketball final at the SkyDome. “It was obviously a team effort and it feels really, really good that we did it.”
The city championship was the sixth in school history for the lady Gators and their first since 1999.
“It’s absolutely amazing to win it for our school. It’s just overwhelming,” said Grade 8 post Marinya Marcichiw with a blinding smile. “We wanted this so bad. This was our goal the whole year.”
The victory completed an undefeated campaign in league play for the girls in orange.
“It’s obviously the best game we’ve played all year,” Marcichiw said. “VJM played great too but we were expecting what they were going to do and we took them.”
VJM was equally as brilliant as the Gators with an impressive 22-3 overall record, highlighted by three tournament triumphs and one second-place result.
VJM also beat the Gators by six points at the Marauders’ tournament before Christmas and 28-27 in the SAPEC tournament final in early January. VJM’s only loss in the league schedule was 39-36 against the Gators in week two.
“That is a real good team. It was a tough battle tonight,” Walter said.
It was 10-9 for the Gators after the first quarter and 20-18 for VJM at halftime in the seesaw affair. After three quarters the Gators were clinging to a 31-30 lead.
“We never stopped giving up and we did everything we could to pull it out at the end,” Walter said.
In the third quarter, after a 13-5 point run by the Gators, VJM ended the period with five unanswered points, including a buzzer-beating bucket by Kayla Ivicak to make it a one-point game.
“In the third quarter we finally started making our hoops and from there on out we kept that motivation going,” Walter said.
Marcichiw, 14, opened the fourth quarter with a long jumper, followed by a VJM field goal from Jamie Cole. Marcichiw replied with a clutch offensive rebound to give the Gators some breathing room at 35-32 with 5:58 to play.
“We really wanted this game and those baskets were for the team,” said Marcichiw, who drained nine of her 11 points in the second half.
The Gators extended the lead with co-captain Tiana Woyewitka’s rim roller and Sydney Hurlburt’s bucket off a nice passing play before the second of two free throws by Jessa Ivicak cut the deficit to six points with 4:34 remaining.
After a solid defensive stretch by the Gators kept VJM from closing the gap, Walter fouled out with 2:43 to go and Lorne Akins up 39-33. The superb Grade 9 point guard left the game with 10 points and a handful of highlight-reel plays, but the foul-plagued Gators soldiered on without their floor general.
“We always work hard and we know how to get ourselves out of tough situations and my team was able to come through when it mattered the most,” said Walter, 14. “It definitely got really nervous for us at the end but we really believed we could pull through.”
Woyewitka sealed the deal with two free throws with 1:18 on the clock after she was fouled on a layup. The call left VJM head coach Rob Rawcliffe fuming on the sideline. The play was set up by a defensive rebound, followed by a series of quick passes down court for Woyewitka to drive the lane. Her team-high 13th point was the second of two free throws to close out the scoring with 23.9 seconds left.
VJM was led by the impressive Ivicak sisters. The rough and tough but skilled guards did everything for the team except fill the water bottles at halftime. Kayla, a Grade 9 player, tacked up 10 points and Jessa, a Grade 8 hoopster, added nine. They also fouled out in the last 30 seconds of the contest.
Give VJM credit for giving the Gators all they could handle in the entertaining affair in front of a well-behaved capacity crowd.
“They were good at rebounding. We try on rebounding but we’re not very good and they were good at boxing out,” said Marcichiw, one of three Gators who fouled out of the game.
The Gators ramped up their championship-calibre game in five tournaments. They won two and finished second twice while going 13-3. The biggie was the Harry Ainlay Junior High Tri-Prov. After knocking off Riverbend 86-85 in a barnburner, the Gators posted double-digit margins of victory against FR Haythorne of Sherwood Park in the semifinals and Vernon Barford in the final.
When asked why the Gators were so strong this year, Marcichiw replied: “Our coach [Dan Wiles, who was joined on the bench by former assistant Darwin Martin for the final] really coached us so well. He just pushed us to our limits and it worked.”
