The Paul Kane Blues are hooping it up in the premier junior finals today at the metro Edmonton league championships at O’Leary High School.
The lady Blues (12-1) will defend their title against the Salisbury Sabres (10-4) at 1 p.m. Last year’s 55-47 triumph over the Bev Facey Falcons in the junior playoffs marked the first championship in girls’ basketball for Paul Kane in the metro league.
The Blues defeated the Sabres twice in league play by scores of 58-45 Dec. 15 at Paul Kane and 50-34 Feb. 25 at Sherwood Park.
In the boys’ tilt at 3 p.m. the Blues (8-1) renew their junior rivalry with the O’Leary Spartans (9-0). Last year’s 58-49 loss to the Christ The King Chargers was the third final in a row the Blues finished the playoffs as runners up. The Spartans beat the Blues for premier honours in 2007 and 2008.
In league play the Spartans placed first and the Blues were second in pool B. The only loss for the Blues was against the Spartans by a score of 60-49 on Jan. 5 at O’Leary.
As for the Paul Kane varsity men’s team, Monday’s playoff with the Sturgeon Spirits to determine the third metro team in the Edmonton zone 4A tournament tips off at 5 p.m. at Namao. The winner will play the Edmonton public league finalist Wednesday in the tournament opener.
Both teams are coming off semifinal losses Wednesday. Paul Kane (9-6) was throttled 103-50 by the St. Francis Xavier Rams (15-0), ranked fourth in 4A. Sturgeon (10-5) dropped a 68-62 decision to the Spartans (12-3).
In the regular season, Paul Kane rallied to edge the Spirits 79-78 Jan. 5 at Namao. In the Feb. 22 rematch, Sturgeon prevailed 79-71 at St. Albert.
The zone 5 Pace was crowned U16 Ringette Alberta champions last weekend at the AA provincials in Edmonton.
Calgary Forte was the runner-up and Calgary Prime placed third in the five-team draw.
The Pace line-up includes St. Albert Ringette Association products Sasha Stadnyk, Kennedie Wolosyn, Alyssa Cancian, Kyra Parayko, Stephanie Bolduc, Jordon Hodge and Molly Chorney.
The Pace will now represent Alberta at the Canadian Ringette Championships, April 5 to 10 at Saskatoon. It’s the second trip to nationals in as many years for Stadnyk, Wolosyn, Cancian, Parayko and Bolduc. They skated with zone 5 Snipe, junior AA silver medallists last year in Charlottetown, P.E.I. The second loss of the season for the Snipe was a 4-1 setback in the gold medal game against Ontario. Bolduc was a first-team all-star defenceman at nationals.
Meanwhile, the zone 5 U19 Swagger finished second out of three teams and the zone 5 U12 Rev was third out of six teams at the AA provincials. Both teams have St. Albert connections on their rosters.
