In the first half of Wednesday’s home opener the Paul Kane Blues looked like a team that had never played basketball before.
After the Blues stumbled their way to a marginal 22-21 halftime lead against the Salisbury Sabres, disgruntled head coach Rick Stanley lit a fire under his colder than ice line-up with a heated pep talk. The players took his words to heart and racked up 14 straight points en route to a commanding 54-23 advantage after three quarters.
“Rick really got us going,” Grade 12 point guard Connor Bradley told the Gazette after the 72-37 rout in the metro Edmonton premier conference. “We really brought up our intensity. In the first half we thought we were going to win this game and then holy [crap] we’re only up by one.”
Stanley, the team’s highly-touted new bench boss, yelled himself hoarse through a painful first half of hoops by the Blues that was tough to watch.
“In the first half we showed no intensity. We were soft. We didn‘t play the way we can play,” Bradley said. “In the third quarter, after Rick gave us a nice little [talk] in the room, we started to realize we are this good and we really got things going. The bench responded too. Guys like Peter McKay and Des Anderson were hitting threes. We all put it together and blew them out.”
In the first quarter the Blues outscored Salisbury 10-9, then fell behind by five in the early stages of the next quarter. They were held scoreless until Bradley nailed a pair of free throws with 6:37 left in the half. A free throw by Sean Allen with seconds remaining put the Blues up by one at the break.
The only bucket by Salisbury in the third quarter was scored with 5:30 left in the 10-minute period.
The Blues sank four threes in the quarter and two more in the last period for seven overall.
The team’s top scorers were Bradley and Tyler Wise with 15 points apiece. Bradley tossed in nine in the second half. In the fourth quarter Wise, a skinny post, made two baskets and four free throws.
The well-balanced scoring attack included seven points by Stuart Boucher, six by Khalil Bertin in the opening 2:31 minutes of the third quarter, and two threes by McKay. Anderson and Brandon Best also showed some offensive flair.
The Blues tipped off league play in Monday’s convincing 75-53 victory over the Archbishop Jordan Scots in Sherwood Park.
“We played hard the whole game. We really showed our confidence,” said Bradley, who shot the lights out in the first quarter with 15 points and finished the win with 23. “Everyone got in and played really solid.”
Paul Kane’s 15-player roster is comprised of nine returnees, including injured Grade 12 forward Bryce Jouan, plus five graduates from the junior Blues that lost the 2010 premier final and one transfer student.
“We’re deep. We’ve got quickness. We’ve got incredible athletic ability. Everyone can really get down the floor and jump. We’ve got guys who can knock down shots. We’ve also got that killer instinct when we want it,” said Bradley, a third-year senior team hoopster who played on the U15 provincial team coached by Stanley.
Last season the Blues finished 8-5 in league play after going 8-4 the previous campaign. They were unable to beat the upstart Sturgeon Spirits in 2010, losing 79-71 in the second-last game in the regular season that basically determined first place in pool B and 65-62 in the playoff to determine the third metro seeded team in the Edmonton zone 4A tournament.
“There is a different feeling this year than last year. I feel more confident and I feel the team is more confident too. I feel when we walk into the gym the other team doesn’t want to play us. We feel confident. It feels good when we go out there,” said Bradley, a St. Albert SLAM product who played for the 2008 SAPEC city champion Sir George Simpson Voyageurs in Grade 9.
The Blues haven’t advanced past the premier semifinals or earned a spot in the zone provincial qualifying tournament since their second-straight metro playoff championship and historic 4A provincial gold-medal victory in 2008.
“We want to go undefeated this year for sure. We want to win a provincial championship,” said Bradley, who forms a deadly Batman and Robin backcourt combination with Bertin, a Grade 11 slasher with provincial team experience.
Meanwhile in tournament action, the Blues played their first game at the 18th annual Totem Hoop Classic against Foothills but Thursday’s score from Ross Sheppard High School was unavailable at press time. The tournament’s website is http://shep.epsb.ca/basketball/totem-hoop.
League play continues Monday, when the Blues visit the Oscar Romero Ravens at 4:45 p.m.
