Concordia University College – Paul Kane was singing the Blues after the Harry Ainlay Titans pounded the metro Edmonton premier men’s champions by 22 points in the 4A Edmonton zone basketball playdowns Thursday.
“Last time we played these guys we only lost by 10 in the Shep tournament so we were feeling pretty good coming into this game. We knew we could play with them. In the first quarter we were doing well and then there were just a couple of things that made us lose,” Grade 11 guard Khalil Bertin said after the Blues went down to defeat 90-68.
The Edmonton public league tier 1 champion Titans outscored the Blues 28-18 in the second quarter to lead by 11 at halftime.
“In the first quarter we came out pretty strong. We were staying right with them but then after they got a few easy buckets we kind of fell apart and collapsed a little bit and that kind of mentally defeated us a bit,” Bertin said.
The Titans jumped ahead to stay with a three-ball with 35 seconds left in the first quarter to make it 17-16.
The second quarter was dominated by Galan Mohammed’s 16 points from a variety of jumpers and low post moves. Defensively, the Blues had no clue how to stop the Titans’ man of the match. He finished the blowout with 25 points.
“They got a few easy offensive rebounds for a couple of big buckets by their big men and then after that our morale kind of went down a little bit and they started getting up by a few more points,” Bertin said.
After three quarters the Blues trailed by 25 points.
Offensively the Blues were a mess and were equally inept defensively against the second-ranked 4A team in Alberta.
Meanwhile, the Titans looked like the Harlem Globetrotters while weaving their magic with the ball in the incredibly quick, well-officiated contest.
The loss was only the 10th in 38 games this season for the Blues in league and tournaments combined.
“It shows that if we want to play with the bigger and top teams in the province we definitely need to have a better mental state and come out strong and stay focused and be able to sustain the pressure and our different plays that we have to execute throughout the whole game,” Bertin said
With the outcome a done deal, bench players Des Anderson (eight points), Shane Kolba (seven), Hyrum Sutton (six) and Zack Yaremko (six) made the score somewhat respectable.
Grade 11 post Tyler Wise scored 10 of his team-high 12 points in the first half. The starting backcourt duo of Bertin and Connor Bradley combined for 19 points, led by Bertin’s 10.
The showdown between the metro and public champions determined the number-one seed in the zone for provincials, starting Thursday at Ross Sheppard High School.
Today at 5 p.m. the Blues will play the Jasper Place Rebels or Ross Sheppard Thunderbirds at The King’s University College to see who will be seeded second and third. Admission is $3.
The Rebels are ranked fifth provincially and the Thunderbirds are seventh. The Blues are ninth.
“We want to win that game,” Bertin said. “If we win we’ll probably finish as the sixth seed and if we lose will finish as the ninth seed [in the 16-team provincial draw].”
By winning the premier final in thrilling fashion, 72-69 over the Bev Facey Falcons last Saturday in a rip-roaring affair, the Blues qualified for their third provincials in five years. They won gold in 2008 after settling for silver the year before.
“We were feeling great obviously after winning such a big championship game but we moved on actually pretty quick. We came to practice on Monday pretty focused on wanting to beat Ainlay for that number one seed to get ourselves higher up in the provincial [draw],” said Bertin, 16, a second-year varsity player. “We’re excited about going because PK hasn’t been there for a couple of years now and we still have a lot of young guys on our team so we’re all looking forward to it and the experience.”
