Ross Sheppard – Every win is another statement game for the team to beat in provincial 4A high school women's basketball.
The 18th victory in a row for the 26-5 St. Albert Skyhawks was Saturday’s championship repeat against the Jasper Place Rebels in the metro Edmonton division one final.
The emphatic 69-49 performance reinforced the season-long No. 1 ranking for the Skyhawks when provincials tip off March 14 at Jasper Place.
“It’s huge for us,” said Kamryn DeKlerk, one of six returnees from last year’s 29-7 provincial bronze medallists.
“We’re coming into provincials with the same mentality as we did today and that’s be ready to play any team,” DeKlerk added. “We knew we were going to get a good game and we did and we pulled through.”
Four more wins and the Skyhawks will cut down the net as provincial gold medallists.
“We’ve got to go in strong knowing there is always the possibility that we could lose and just play our game,” said Morgan Harris, a Grade 10 Skyhawk who thrived in the spotlight of the league final with an abundance of energy all over the court.
“It was so exciting. It’s fun to play as a team and especially playing for the Grade 12s (Bella Cuciz, Kyleigh Kornak and Kaya Vandermeer),” said Harris, noting there was pressure surrounding the big game inside the Ross Sheppard gym packed with fans. “Yes, definitely there was in just not knowing the outcome of it and being scared and nervous.”
Visit StAlbertToday.ca for the team’s championship banner picture.
The Skyhawks appeared somewhat jittery while falling behind 19-15 in the first quarter as Jenna Rinsky produced the opening seven points for the Rebels for nine (one three-pointer and six free throws) before quarter time. Kaylee Plouffe also nailed two three-pointers for the Rebels while Morgan and Teá DeMong tossed in one apiece from downtown.
The Skyhawks cranked it up during a 12-2 run to start the second quarter as DeKlerk fired back-to-back three-pointers a minute apart to put the Skyhawks on top 25-21 with 2:44 gone in the period.
There was no catching the Skyhawks as Annacy Palmer’s three-pointer and Mimi Sigue’s determined offensive rebound forced the rattled Rebels to call a timeout with 3:32 left in the half down 32-23.
The dagger that killed the Rebels was the three-pointer by Harris from the corner of the floor in front of the Rebels’ section of fans. Harris was knocked backwards on the successful shot and her free throw attempt was good to lengthen the lead to 36-25 with 2:07 to go before the break.
The 40-25 halftime advantage turned into a 59-37 rout after three quarters as the Skyhawks poured it on. After a relatively-quiet seven points in the first half by DeMong, who was tagged with two fouls, the Grade 11 scoring threat rattled off a three-pointer and then pulled the trigger for a basket before Palmer uncorked another three-ball that prompted a timeout by the Rebels 1:48 into the second half and the unstoppable Skyhawks in total control at 48-25.
“It was a super tough game,” said the diplomatic DeKlerk despite the 20-point margin of victory. “They were up early on us but we just came together as a team and buckled down and got it done.
“We pushed the ball, we got a lot of second chance opportunities and we just played for each other.”
DeMong finished with a team-best 14 points, Palmer netted 13 and the six-foot-one Sigue added 10 while giving the Rebels headaches in the low post with her physicality.
Harris, 15, was a buzz saw as the quickest and shortest Skyhawk on the roster. The five-foot-five guard chipped in with 10 points while pulling down an equal amount of rebounds at both ends of the floor as one of six Grade 10s contributing to the team’s success.
“It’s so amazing. It feels awesome,” said Harris, who attended Millwoods Christian School in Edmonton last season. “We were getting the momentum up and playing full speed all the time. We had great defence and great talk on the court by everyone.”
Rinsky, a slick Grade 11 guard, drained 11 of her 15 points in the first half and the six-foot-two Plouffe scored 15 for the sixth-ranked 4A Rebels, 11-2 in division one and 22-7 overall with seven returnees and no Grade 12s.
The Skyhawks ran the table in league play at 13-0 while beating the Rebels for the second time in three games this season after the well-documented three victories in 25 days last year that included the 68-58 division one final and 58-56 bronze-medal thriller at provincials.
The last loss for the Skyhawks was suffered on Dec. 15 at the REB Invitational at Jasper Place as the Rebels prevailed 66-52 in the third-place game with DeMong, Palmer and Harris absent from the tournament because of invites to the women’s national age-group assessment camps in Toronto.
The eighth final in 10 years also marked the first back-to-back metro championships for the Skyhawks as a 4A team since the merger of the metro and Edmonton public leagues in the fall of 2013.
The Skyhawks were also awarded metro championship banners in the premier conference, which is now division one, in 2010, 2012 and 2013 and were the runners-up in 2014, 2015 and 2016.
The non-final year for the Skyhawks was 2017 as division one semifinalists and 4A provincial consolation champions.
The Skyhawks were seeded first in this year’s division one playoffs by wrapping up the regular season with scores of 83-75 against the Rebels at Jasper Place and 69-33 against the No. 10-ranked 4A Paul Kane Blues at the SkyDome.
Paul Kane, 9-3 in division one and 18-9 overall, suffered a heart-breaking 65-63 semifinal loss on Rinsky’s basket with about nine seconds to play to put the Rebels ahead for good.
Last year the Skyhawks, Rebels and Paul Kane wound up in a three-way deadlock for first place at 10-1 and the tie-breaker formula left the Skyhawks as the top seed in the playoff bracket.
“It was just a grind last year to get here but this year we showed that we earned it so it's pretty sweet because we deserved to be here,” said DeKlerk, a cool, calm and collected Grade 11 guard who popped in nine points in the championship outcome.
On tap next is the sixth consecutive 4A provincials for the Skyhawks after the unprecedented four-straight 3A championships by the St. Albert Catholic High School women’s basketball program.
DeKlerk, 16, believes it’s the Year of the Skyhawks.
“We love each other. We're a family and it shows when we play. We play for each other and that’s how we’re going to play at provincials.”
