The Bellerose Bulldogs are learning the hard way how to succeed in high school men’s basketball.
After two winless seasons in the metro Edmonton league the new-look Bulldogs under head coach Don Phillips tipped off the division one schedule in Wednesday’s 89-63 loss to the Paul Kane Blues in front of a big crowd at Bellerose.
“We’re an inexperienced team and they’re an experienced team,” said Tanner McLean-Poll, a six-foot Grade 12 forward/guard. “We put our best effort out there today. We really did try our hardest but we’re still bonding.”
Bellerose was outscored 12-7 in the last four minutes of the opening period while falling behind 20-15 entering the second quarter.
The second half ended with Bellerose down 40-35 despite pouring in seven of the team’s 13 three-pointers in the contest.
In the third quarter Bellerose committed two fouls in the opening 10 seconds and the team’s fifth foul was whistled with 5:50 left in the period and Paul Kane in front 51-38.
A combination of sloppy Bellerose turnovers, strong Paul Kane defensive play and a more polished offensive attack by the Blues left the foul-plagued Bulldogs hanging by a thread at 69-47 with 10 minutes to play.
Paul Kane finished the Battle of St. Albert with nine three-points, led by Quinn Peterson’s five threes and game-high 25 points.
“The first half we kept up with them,” said McLean-Poll, who wired 15 points on five threes. “In the second half, especially in the third quarter, we kind of let them get under our skin and get ahead of us.
“We just lost it in the third quarter.”
Darryl Broderick, a Grade 11 point guard and transfer student from Paul Kane where he hooped it up for the senior Blues last season, was Bellerose’s top scorer with 17 points. In the second half he tacked up 11 points, including two of his three threes.
McLean-Poll nailed four threes in the second half and his last three rounded out the team’s scoring.
The loss marked the first game for Bellerose after a successful 2-2 showing for 11th place at the 17th annual Mike Dea Classic last weekend at St. Francis Xavier High School.
Bellerose beat the Lloydminster Barons and Sturgeon Heights Huskies of Winnipeg and lost to the Saints Francis Browns of Calgary and McNally Tigers.
“We went out there and tried to do what our coach told us what to do with our sets of plays and they worked pretty well,” said McLean-Poll.
He singled out the tournament lid-lifter against the Browns, a 72-68 setback, as the team’s best effort.
“We thought we might be outmatched but we put in a pretty good game against them and we only lost by four.”
League play continues Monday as the senior Bulldogs shoot for their first metro Edmonton win since going 4-8 in the 2011/12 city conference. Tip-off is 5 p.m. against the visiting M.E. Lazerte Voyageurs.
“We definitely have a good chance at a pretty good season. We’ll see how it goes,” said McLean-Poll, who played for the 3-6 junior division two Bulldogs last season.
Bellerose is also entered in the Rise Up tournament, hosted by the Sturgeon Spirits, and the first game is 2 p.m. Friday against a team from Regina.
“We have a bunch of tournaments coming up and we’re going to be prepared for all the games. We know if we’re prepared for teams we can win,” said McLean-Poll, 17, who had a strong midget AA campaign with the St. Albert Cardinals this summer.
