Second best is still not good enough for the St. Albert Skyhawks.
The number-two ranked 3A varsity women’s basketball team in Alberta is determined to finish on top when provincial honours are at stake.
“It’s awesome that we’re ranked second but we want to go higher than that,” declared Grade 12 point guard Hilary Annich after the Skyhawks outclassed the St. Thomas Aquinas Thunder 92-49 Thursday at the Optimist Showdown in St. Albert.
The updated rankings by the Alberta Schools’ Athletic Association marked the second time this season the Skyhawks were listed second behind Springbank High.
“It’s good to know that were standing so high up in the rankings again. It makes us more sure of what we can do,” said Annich, who lit up the Thunder for a season-high 33 points as the Skyhawks improved their overall record to 10-2. “It’s good that we can stay consistent. It shows everyone that we can be a team that can do some damage.”
Annich, 17, isn’t surprised the Skyhawks are flying so high.
“Last year we did pretty good. This year we have a lot of returning players [eight veterans, including six Grade 12s] so I was expecting us to have a good year and so far it’s been amazing,”
However the 2009 provincials ended sooner than expected for the Skyhawks, seeded fourth in the 12-team draw as the Edmonton zone champions. Losses of 47-44 to the Wetaskiwin Sabres and 53-47 to the Holy Rosary Raiders sent the 2008 provincial bronze medallists home disappointed beyond belief.
“It kind of haunts you. We think about it all the time,” said Annich, a third-year Skyhawk. “It showed that we weren’t mentally tough enough that year. This year we’ve got to improve on that.”
Under the direction of head coach John Dedrick, the Skyhawks are striving to qualify for their sixth provincials in six years. They competed at the last three provincials as the zone winners after making it as a wild card team.
“We’re pushing hard to go there again and do better than we did last year,” said Annich, the Skyhawks’ MVP last year.
In league play the Skyhawks and O’Leary Spartans, a perennial 4A provincial medal contender, shared top spot in the metro Edmonton premier conference with 5-0 records at the exam break. That deadlock will be broken Monday, when the Skyhawks visit O’Leary at 4:45 p.m. in what promises to be a barnburner.
“We have to be ready for O’Leary. We were very close the last time we played them [in the third-place game at the REB tournament last month at Jasper Place] and we only lost by two,” said Annich, who drained a team-high 24 points in the loss. “We need to beat them. We haven’t since I’ve been in the school. It’s been a goal for us to beat them and I think we’re going to.”
Leading up to the biggest game of the year is the 20th annual Showdown high school tournament. The Skyhawks placed sixth last year after winning their first Showdown title in school history in 2008.
“It’s good to play different teams. We don’t play a lot of these teams in league and some of them are in our zone so to have more games against them will only help us get to provincials,” Annich said.
After polishing off the Thunder the Skyhawks hooked up with Wetaskiwin in the quarter-finals Friday but the score was unavailable at press time. The Sabres are ranked fourth in 3A.
Thursday’s tournament opener marked the first game for the Skyhawks after the exam break. They won it in the first quarter by out-scoring the Thunder 24-9. It was 42-18 at halftime and 71-33 after three quarters. The only suspense was if the home team would break 100 points against the Spruce Grove club.
“It’s good to get back into basketball and to have this team [Thunder] to slowly start off with,” Annich said. “We didn’t really play up to our potential. We kind of dropped down a bit but we’ll pick that up for our next game [Friday].”
Annich racked up 18 points in the second half and finished the blowout with three three-pointers.
“I wasn’t doing so great at the start but after the first half I got some points right away and I guess they kept going in for me.”
Shelby Hucul tossed 19 points and Andrea Heavener added 11. Katie Burak contributed eight points coming off the bench. Every Skyhawk on the 11-player roster scored points.
Today in the 16-team women’s draw the semifinals tip-off at 10:45 a.m. at the St. Albert Catholic and Morinville Community high schools. St. Albert Catholic also hosts the third-place game at 4:15 p.m. and the final at 6:15 p.m. The women’s consolation final is 6:15 p.m. at Morinville.
