The St. Albert Skyhawks are off to a flying start in high school hoops.
The reigning metro Edmonton premier conference champions tipped off Monday’s league opener with a 78-53 thrashing of the Archbishop Jordan Scots in Sherwood Park.
“We pressured from start to finish,” said John Dedrick, head coach of the 3A provincial champions.
The halftime score was 50-31.
“In the second half we were able to spread minutes around so that some of the Grade 10s got a chance to play meaningful minutes and try stuff on the floor, which is always valuable,” Dedrick said.
Co-captain Zoe Downing sank a team-high 19 points. Kendall Lydon tacked up 14. Shelby Hucul and Haley England added 13 apiece.
The Scots were missing top player Erin McKinnon and the Skyhawks played without Grade 11 post Katie Burak, who hurt her knee at the Mike Dea Classic tournament Friday.
Amber Easthope, a spunky Grade 10 guard, suffered a mild ankle sprain in the second half, which shortened the Skyhawks’ bench.
Grade 11 forward Hayley Warmington turned in solid minutes in her first game after an ankle injury at the Dea tournament.
The Skyhawks rebounded sharply from Saturday’s 52-41 loss to the O’Leary Spartans in the Dea final at St. Francis Xavier High School.
“We shot the worst I think we ever have,” said Lydon, a Grade 11 guard and the Skyhawks’ tournament all-star. “I know next time it’s going to be a much better game. We’ll shoot a lot better.”
The Skyhawks couldn’t hit sand falling off a camel while falling behind 13-11 after the first quarter, 26-18 at halftime and 40-26 after three quarters.
“Obviously we have to shoot better as well as execute properly against O‘Leary for us to be successful,” Dedrick said of the perennial 4A provincial contenders that are taller and older with a deeper bench than the Skyhawks. “When two out of our top three scorers combine for 12 points, we are not going to win many games.”
Hucul led the team in points with 14. Lydon scored five of her nine points in the fourth quarter.
Adut Bulgak, O’Leary’s dominating Grade 12 post and tournament MVP, punished the Skyhawks for 19 points, several rebounds and some blocked shots. Gutsy efforts by England, a Grade 11 newcomer from the Morinville Lady Wolves, and Paige Knull, a promising Grade 10 rookie, prevented Bulgak from running up the score. The vertically challenged duo took turns guarding the towering Spartan.
“We realize that Adut will always get points and rebounds but we simply have to work harder to try and control the easy putbacks,” Dedrick said.
The last time the premier rivals hooked up was the metro final at O’Leary High School. In arguably one of the most thrilling championship games in league history, Lydon pumped in two clutch free throws with 0.1 left on the clock to beat the Spartans 74-72.
“O’Leary is really good again this year and we knew they were out to get us after we beat them in premier,” Lydon said.
In Friday’s semifinal against the Spruce Grove Panthers, the 4A provincial silver medallists, the Skyhawks shot the lights out in the 71-59 win. At one stage in the first quarter the Skyhawks held a commanding 15-point advantage.
“We could not miss a shot in the first quarter and we played intense throughout the entire game. It was an amazing game to play in,” said Lydon.
Her 23 points led all scorers. Hucul also racked up 15 after posting the same total in the 67-33 rout of the Bowness Trojans of Calgary in the tournament opener.
“We’re happy with our performance since we were starting with some excellent competition. We have a very young team [four Grade 10s, five Grade 11s and two Grade 12s] and it was good to see how hard they competed against two of the top five 4A teams in the province,” Dedrick said of the Panthers and Spartans.
Lydon, 17, was excited to see the Skyhawks gel as a unit.
“We’ve got a lot of new players and it helped with our team chemistry,” said the second-year Skyhawk from the Chehalis (Wash.) Bearcats. “The new players on the team have got an idea now of how we play at St. Albert, just like I did last year. We all know what’s expected of us.”
Last season the Skyhawks posted a perfect 14-0 record as the only 3A team in premier and were among the very few 3A teams in metro history to win premier.
The first St. Albert team of any size or school to capture a provincial women’s crown in basketball is gunning for its seventh straight trip to provincials and its fifth in a row as the Edmonton zone champions.
“We have to step it up and play as well as we did last year and try and achieve exactly what we did because we’re not going to expect anything less than those results,” Lydon said.
Dedrick is confident the Skyhawks have what it takes to repeat.
“I do believe that we will be a contender by year’s end, both in premier as well as 3A provincials.”
Today at 4:45 p.m. the Skyhawks host the Salisbury Sabres.
The first game for the Skyhawks at the Jasper Place REB tournament is 4 p.m. Thursday against Riffel of Regina.
