The heat is on the St. Albert Skyhawks to finish the season in a blaze of glory.
“There is a lot of pressure on us,” said Mimi Sigue, a Grade 11 post with the highest-ranked 4A high school women’s basketball team in the province. “Everyone who plays us is going to play their best game and we’ve seen it. Sometimes we forgot that coming into games, but we do adjust eventually.”
The Skyhawks (12-0) can repeat as metro Edmonton division one champions with a victory against the Jasper Place Rebels (11-1) in today’s final at 5 p.m. at Ross Sheppard before provincials tip off March 14 at Jasper Place.
“Number one is what we want to be so every game is going to be a little bit closer, but we know what we’re facing coming into provincials and city finals,” said Sigue, one of five returning players (Bella Cuciz didn’t play last season because of an injury) from last year’s 29-7 team.
The rematch of the 2018 division one final features the 25-5 Skyhawks and the No. 6-ranked 22-6 Rebels.
The top two teams in league play have gone head-to-head twice this season after the Skyhawks beat the Rebels three times during a 25-day span last year: 68-59 at the SkyDome in the last game before the playoffs as the Rebels suffered their first loss in league play, 68-58 in the division one final at Jasper Place and 58-56 in the provincial bronze-medal match at Medicine Hat.
In league play, the Skyhawks outlasted the Rebels 83-75 Feb. 11 at Jasper Place and the first confrontation was 66-52 for the Rebels in the third-place game at the 37th annual REB Invitational on Dec. 15 against a lineup missing three starters – Teá DeMong, Annacy Palmer and Morgan Harris – because of commitments with the women’s national age-group assessment camps in Toronto.
The Rebels, with seven Team Alberta players from last year’s U15 and U17 nationals, returned seven players, including the injured Haley Fedick, a Grade 11 forward, and there are no Grade 12s on the roster.
“They’re bigger than us so it’s going to be won on the boards, I guess,” said Sigue, a U17 Team Alberta player along with DeMong and Kamryn DeKlerk while Palmer, Morgan and Dakota Wedman of the Skyhawks played for the U15 team.
The Rebels advanced to the final in Wednesday’s 65-63 decision against the No. 10-ranked Paul Kane Blues (9-3) at Jasper Place.
The hard-fought battle was decided by a pair of Jenna Rinsky’s free throws with about nine seconds left to put the Rebels up by two and Paul Kane was unable to score on the next possession.
The 17th win in a row for the Skyhawks was the sub-par 64-33 showing by team standards against the Salisbury Sabres (8-4), a 4A honourable mention, in Wednesday’s semifinal at the SkyDome.
“We played down to their level. We were not thinking, like reacting instead of doing what we do,” Sigue said. "We definitely could’ve played harder. I think we were a little frazzled.”
Period scores were 16-12, 40-23 and 48-31.
“They came out like they wanted it a little bit more than us and they played like that throughout the game, but because our team is more talented, we pulled out the win,” Sigue said. “Sometimes we’ve got to be quicker coming into the game knowing that we have to play our hardest.”
DeMong’s team-high 15 points included 11 in the first half after the 2018 Metro Athletics all-star and second team All-Canadian at U17 nationals buried 34 points in the 121-42 blowout of the Spruce Grove Panthers (3-8) in Monday’s quarter-final.
DeMong’s free throw from a technical assessed to Salisbury’s assistant coach after she converted a breakaway pass by DeKlerk off a defensive rebound to make it 28-12 at the five-minute mark capped off a 12-point run to start off the second quarter.
A minute earlier, DeMong converted three free throws after the Grade 11 standout was fouled while attempting a three-pointer and a few seconds later Harris drained a three-ball.
DeKlerk contributed 10 points and Maty Drefs tacked up nine.
The player of the game for the Skyhawks was Sigue grinding out 11 points in heavy traffic around the hoop with a determined effort.
“I came here to win, nothing less, so hopefully we’ll come out with the win in the final,” said the robust six-foot-one Skyhawk.
After the final, the Skyhawks turn their attention to winning four straight at provincials for the team’s first provincial banner since its historic run of four consecutive 3A championships before moving up to the 4A ranks in the 2013-14 season and at provincials won bronze.
Among the contenders at the 16-team provincials are the No. 2 Bishop Carroll cardinals of Calgary, No. 3 Centennial Coyotes of Calgary, No. 4 Magrath Pandas and No. 5 Western Canada Redhawks of Calgary.
Last year Centennial defeated Bishop Carroll by seven points in the provincial final.
The Skyhawks and Bishop Carroll split two games this season after the Cardinals knocked off the St. Albert Catholic High School team by 11 points in last year’s provincial semifinals.
“We’ve played some of the biggest competition from the south and maybe not all of Calgary but we’ve seen Bishop Carroll and what they can do so that will really help us,” said Sigue, 16, of the 64-42 loss in the third-place game at the District Four Invitational in Calgary and 76-53 semifinal win at the Paul Kane Invitational.
