The St. Albert Skyhawks and Paul Kane Blues tip off the 4A provincial high school women’s basketball championship in their home gyms Thursday.
The Skyhawks, seeded second in the 16-team draw, host the 15th-seeded Dr. E.P. Scarlett Lancers of Calgary at 9 a.m. at the SkyDome and the ninth-seeded Blues entertain the eighth-seeded Bishop Grandin Ghosts of Calgary at 11 a.m. at Paul Kane.
The round of 16 winners advance into the championship bracket and the losing teams compete in the consolation bracket.
The quarter-finals in both brackets are also on tap Thursday.
The Skyhawks play the seventh-seeded Jasper Place Rebels or the 10th-seeded Medicine Hat Kwahommies at 2 or 6 p.m. at Jasper Place, the main venue for the women’s and men’s provincials.
The Blues battle the No. 1-seeded Spruce Grove Panthers or the 16th-seeded Westwood Trojans of Fort McMurray at 4 or 8 p.m.
Friday’s draw times include the championship bracket semifinals at 6 and 8 p.m.
Saturday the consolation final goes at noon, the bronze final is 2 p.m. and the championship game is 6 p.m.
Visit www.asaa.ca to link up to the tournament website.
Admission is $25 for a tournament pass, $10 for a regular day pass, $7 for a student day pass with ID card and youths 10 and under get in free.
The Panthers, Skyhawks, Rebels, Blues and the 13th-seeded Strathcona Lords are listed first to fifth, respectively, as the Edmonton zone reps at provincials.
The Panthers are 29-2 as the two-time reigning metro Edmonton division one champions and the Skyhawks are 30-4 overall as the division one finalists for two years in a row
Last year at provincials in Lethbridge the Skyhawks beat the Panthers 56-51 in the bronze final to finish 30-5 overall and the Blues went 2-2 as the consolation finalists in their second trip to provincials in three years.
The Skyhawks are competing in the 4A championship for the second-straight year after winning a record four consecutive 3A provincial banners.
The St. Albert SLAM midget A girls finished a season of excellence undefeated in 20 games after dominating the Youth Provincial Championships last weekend in Calgary.
The SLAM rattled off convincing victories of 66-23 against Northwest Calgary in the quarter-finals, 69-44 against the Leduc Lightning in the semifinals and 50-32 against the Sherwood Park SBA Stingers in the final.
“The girls became more focused and intense as the weekend grew,” said head coach Rick Stanley.
The SLAM ended up playing two teams from the Edmonton region after Leduc beat Bow River and Sherwood Park knocked off the No. 1-ranked Calwest team by 10 in the semifinals.
The final was a rematch of the Edmonton Youth Basketball Association championship, when the SLAM defeated Sherwood Park 55-52.
The SLAM are Lily Armstrong, Bronwen Barter, Tia Carr, Bella Cuciz, Kaitlyn Kluttig, Tegan Mackinnon, Abby Morrison, Aine Murphy, Madison Sadlowski, Alesha Stanley, Ella Stanley and Kenzie Thera.
Five players made the jump to midget A from last year’s 24-0 provincial bantam A championship team.
Alesha was the SLAM’s top scorer at the midget A provincials while hitting nine, 18 and 16 points in the three games.
Morrison racked up a slew of assists while scoring eight, 11 and 10 points in the three wins.
Thera tacked up eight, 10 and eight points, Mackinnon added six, five and eight points and Cuciz had seven, 12 and nine points.
“All the other players chipped in with anywhere from three to 10 points through various games,” said coach Stanley. “Every player scored this weekend and it was a true team effort.”
The Morinville Wolves are seeded ninth out of 12 teams at the 3A provincial high school women’s basketball championship in Taber.
The North Central zone champions play the eighth-seeded Chestermere Lakers in Thursday’s tournament opener and the winner advances into Friday’s quarter-final against the No. 1-seeded W.R. Myers Rebels of Taber.
Visit www.asaa.ca to link up to the tournament website.
Last weekend the Wolves repeated at zones by beating Hilltop of Whitecourt 97-25, R.F. Staples of Westlock 66-42 and Edwin Parr of Athabasca 50-37.
Sam Ringuette and Sara Pelletier scored 11 points apiece to pace the attack against Edwin Parr in the final.
The 3A provincial rankings listed the Wolves as an honourable mention team before zones, where they were seeded first overall.
The Wolves are 23-4 overall with nine returnees from last year’s team that finished in the bottom half of the provincial draw.
