The 3A provincials tip off Friday at Chestermere for the defending champion St. Albert Skyhawks.
Seeded second in the 12-team draw, the Skyhawks will play Thursday’s winner between the Holy Rosary Raiders (seventh) of Lloydminster and the host Chestermere Lakers (10th).
The McCoy Colts of Medicine Hat are seeded first and the Magrath Pandas are third. Magrath is in the same side of the draw as the Skyhawks.
The Skyhawks march into their seventh provincials in a row and fifth straight as the Edmonton zone champions with an overall 29-12 record. They have five returnees from last year’s 34-5 gold medal-winning line-up that made history as the first St. Albert team to win a provincial women’s title in high school basketball. In the final the Skyhawks beat Magrath 56-48.
The Morinville Lady Wolves qualified for their third 3A provincials in a row as the north central zone champions in high school basketball.
The tournament opener at Chestermere for the ninth-seeded Wolves is Thursday against the Camrose Trojans. They beat the eighth-ranked Trojans twice and lost once in overtime two weeks ago.
The Wolves finished 10th out of 12 teams in both of the last two provincials.
In Saturday’s zone final the Wolves hung on to defeat the John Maland Wildcats by four points in Devon. Defence and composure down the stretch propelled the foul-plagued Wolves to victory. Five players were saddled with four fouls and another player fouled out.
The Wolves advanced to the final with a nine-point win against the Barrhead Gryphons and a 23-point victory against the St. Thomas Aquinas Thunder.
Brittany Wilson sank a team-high 26 points against the Gryphons. The Wolves ran into foul trouble, allowing the Gryphons to keep the score close.
Rebecca Dubord led the charge against the Thunder with 12 rebounds and seven steals.
Wilson and Kayli Avveduti are the only Wolves back from last year’s provincials. Seeded 10th, the Wolves lost a heart-breaking one-point decision to Magrath in the provincial lid-lifter. They rebounded to knock off the Peace Wapiti Academy Titans of Grande Prairie by 25 points and then bowed out to Holy Rosary by seven points.
The St. Albert Flyers are seeded second in the Alberta Minor Midget AAA Hockey League’s North Cup playoff bracket.
This weekend in Spruce Grove the Flyers (30-7-1) will play the SSAC Bulldogs (27-9-2), Lloydminster Rage (20-10-8) and MLAC (12-20-6) in pool B round robin action. The top two teams in pools A and B qualify for the semifinals.
The North Cup winner will challenge the south conference playoff rep for provincial honours.
In league play the Flyers finished second behind the Sherwood Park Squires (32-1-5) in the north pennant race.
