The St. Albert Skyhawks didn’t let a pimple turn into a wart by losing two games in a row.
The 4A provincial high school women’s basketball champions saved face from a rare loss to finish third at the 38th annual REB Invitational last weekend at Jasper Place.
After falling short 76-68 to the Western Canada Redman of Calgary, the Skyhawks bounced back to defeat the Leboldus Suns of Regina 79-67.
“It was our first loss of the season and in awhile from last season so we had to pick ourselves up from that,” said Annacy Palmer, a Grade 11 shooting guard and tournament all-star.
Friday’s semifinal setback stopped a 28-game winning streak that started following back-to-back losses at last year's REB Invitational before the Skyhawks rattled off 22 in a row while going 30-5 overall.
In six wins this season before losing to the Redhawks, the Skyhawks averaged an impressive 100 points and 36.5 against in two metro Edmonton division one games and four tournament games.
“We definitely had to be mentally prepared going into that game (against Leboldus) after the loss,” Palmer said. “We had a bit of a slow start but we got playing near the end and we were able to get going.”
A three-point lead at halftime expanded to a 59-49 advantage with 10 minutes remaining.
Palmer drained 12 of her team-high 20 points in the second half, Kamryn DeKlerk scored 19 in total and Maya Flindall netted 14.
In the semifinal, the Skyhawks weren’t ready for a determined opponent as the Redhawks, bronze medallists at the 2019 provincials, battled hard and celebrated everything they did.
Taking care of the ball was among the team’s shortcomings.
“It was a tough game,” Palmer said. “I don’t think we were ever up in the whole game. We were either tied for we were trailing by some points.
“We’re not used to playing that sort of competition and we were beating teams by a lot in league play," Palmer added. "We weren’t mentally ready coming into it and we just weren’t where we needed to be with our intensity.”
Down 5-0 in a blink of an eye, the Skyhawks fell behind 14-8 while struggling to get going. DeKlerk got into foul trouble early so the dangerous Grade 12 scorer sat for most of the half. When the Redhawks pushed ahead by 10 points halfway into the second quarter, DeKlerk was back on the floor and immediately hit a three-pointer.
Palmer, Mimi Sigue and Morgan Harris, U17 Team Alberta players at the 2019 nationals along with DeKlerk and Teá DeMong, were also saddled with two fouls apiece in the second quarter.
The Skyhawks ended the first half down by a handful of points and after three quarters the deficit was a tad tighter.
“They’re a good team and we didn’t play our best,” Palmer said. “We can definitely learn from that game and going into future tournaments hopefully we’ll get to play them again and hopefully we beat them.”
A shambles of a score sheet lacked basic stats information for both teams.
The Redhawks went on to beat the Jasper Place Rebels 60-58 in the final.
The Skyhawks were also without the services of DeMong for the third REB Invitational in a row because of Canada Basketball age-group assessment camps. The Metro Athletics All-Star the last two years was among 57 females, including five from Alberta, invited to the Dec. 12 to 16 camp in Toronto for the U17 and U18 team tryouts.
DeMong was joined by Palmer and Harris at the 2018 assessment camps at the same time as the REB Invitation as the Skyhawks suffered losses of 79-75 in double overtime to the Paul Kane Blues in the semifinal and 66-52 to the Jasper Place Rebels in the third-place game.
In league play, the Skyhawks are 3-0 after barely breaking a sweat in Monday’s 84-20 laugher against the Archbishop Jordan Scots (0-2) at the SkyDome.
Except for the games against the Redhawks and Leboldus, the repeat winners of the division one playoff banner piled up the points at an outrageous pace while surpassing triple digits on the scoreboard three times, highlighted by the whopping 77-point margin of victory at 111-34 against Paul Kane in the final of the 22nd annual Mike Dea Classic on Nov. 30.
“It’s been a good season so far, but we can't lower our standards and we can't expect average. We have to keep expecting more of ourselves. We want the provincial championship again and we want the city final championship again even though we have a target on our back. Teams are not going to make it easy for us, just like Western as we saw in the tournament,” said Palmer, one of eight returnees on the 11-player roster. “And even if we're more skilled than other teams, their competitiveness and intensity could still win a game for them because if our expectations are lower than theirs we could lose a game against a team like that.”
Palmer, 16, missed two league games last week – 97-56 against the Spruce Grove Panthers (0-3) and 106-24 against the Strathcona Lords (1-2) – because of a sprained right ankle suffered in the fourth quarter against Paul Kane at the Mike Dea Classic and returned to the lineup in Thursdays 96-45 lashing of the Lords at the REB Invitational.
Palmer was one of eight Skyhawks available for Monday’s game to produce points and the prime-time starter finished with eight. Flindall, a Grade 10 bolt of lightning, led all scorers with 20, DeKlerk chipped in with 14, Maty Drefs had 11 and Sigue added 10.
Period scores were 14-4, 37-12 and 63-17.
Upcoming for the Skyhawks is the Centennial tournament in Calgary Jan. 3-4 and the next league game is Jan. 6 against the Salisbury Sabres (2-0) at 5 p.m. in Sherwood Park.
