The Paul Kane Blues have a score to settle Monday in the Battle of St. Albert.
The Blues are looking to right a wrong against the Bellerose Bulldogs after last year’s loss in high school men’s basketball.
First place in the metro Edmonton division two pool B standings is also on the line between the 6-0 Blues and 7-0 Bulldogs.
Tipoff is 6:30 p.m. at Bellerose.
“It’s going to be a big game. We’re trying to get back at them,” said Keaton Zaychkowsky, a versatile Grade 12 hoopster who admitted the Blues have been looking forward to the rematch “ever since last year when we lost to them” by a score of 83-77.
“Hopefully we can bring it a little bit more than last year.”
The Blues and Bulldogs were playing for pride and bragging rights as the bottom teams in division one and the physical confrontation was a doozy on Senior Night at Bellerose. The teams combined for 54 fouls, as tabulated by the Gazette, plus three technicals and an unsportsmanlike conduct call against the Blues.
A kerfuffle between players in the second quarter resulted in a long delay as the referees sorted out the infractions while the head coaches, Don Phillips of the Bulldogs and Mitch Buffie of the Blues, attempted to calm down their respective benches.
The outcome not only marked the first and only win of the season for the Bulldogs in division one, it was also the first time Bellerose beat Paul Kane in league play to further intensify the crosstown rivalry.
“We’re ready for a battle,” said Logan Buchanan, a Grade 12 shooting guard. “We’re very excited. It’s going to be a fun game.”
The Blues and Bulldogs are the only undefeated division two teams as the pool B leaders and in pool A the St. Joseph Saints, Millwoods Christian Royals and Oscar Romero Ravens share top spot at 5-1.
“It’s quite exciting. We have a very, very good group of kids. We all get along and we’re all buddies on the team,” Zaychkowsky said of the 6-0 start.
The Blues believe they are a stronger team than last year’s squad that finished 2-11 in division one and playing in division two has also been a deciding factoring in the undefeated record.
“This year we’ve definitely shown more of what we can do,” Zaychkowsky said.
“We’re more of a whole team this year. Last year we played more one on one ball,” he added. “This year we run our offence quite good as a team.”
The Blues are averaging 66.6 points and 55.6 against in six wins, compared to 81.8 points and 62.2 against in seven wins by the Bulldogs.
“We’re really good at pushing the ball in transition and we can shoot the ball really well too,” Buchanan said.
Several players take turns dropping the ball through the hoop with regularity.
“We have multiple shooters like Logan and Aidan (Kelly) and a bunch of other kids that can shoot the ball quite well so if one may not be doing as well another will rise to the occasion so there will always be a couple of guys that can at least shoot in every single game,” Zaychkowsky said.
The Blues are also winning with the addition of several talented newcomers.
“We had a really young team coming in so we didn’t know what we were going to get but we ended up with some really strong Grade 10s this year,” Buchanan said.
When asked if the Blues have exceeded expectations, Zaychkowsky replied: “I would say we’ve met expectations,” he stressed. “We knew we had a lot of Grade 10s coming in and they have totally played better than we’ve ever expected them to. They’ve played quite well and in all the tournaments they put the whole team on their backs pretty much.
“Also, the seniors have gained some confidence off of them as they have gained confidence off of us.”
Last weekend the Blues turned in their best tournament performance of the season as finalists at the Archbishop MacDonald competition.
“Everything was clicking,” Buchanan said. “Everyone throughout the team shot the ball really well.”
In the final, the Blues dropped a tight 74-69 decision to the Ravens, the third-ranked 3A team in the province.
“It was a tough game. We knew that they were going to be a really good team and they just made more shots than us in the end,” said Buchanan, a tournament all-star who was dropping in three-pointers with flair throughout the tournament.
“I shoot a lot of threes and they seemed to fall.”
The last league contest was Tuesday’s 63-53 victory against the Eastglen Blue Devils (1-6) at Paul Kane.
“It wasn’t one of our best games. We knew from the start that it was a winable game. They weren’t as strong as a team and we came out playing with a different mindset but we shouldn’t have so I think we learned from it,” said Buchanan, 17, a member of the 2016 midget AA Baseball Alberta Tier I champion and U18 western gold-meal winning St. Albert Cardinals Red.
Zaychkowsky agreed.
“We didn’t play as well as we hoped. We still came out with a win but we could’ve done a lot of things better. We’re going to use it as kind of a foundation for what we’re going to try and do on Monday. We’re going to try and work hard, not like we did in that last game,” said the newly-minted 18-year-old.
This weekend the Blues are in Calgary for the Western Canada Redhawks Invitational and in the tournament opener lost 67-54 to the Crescent Heights Cowboys.
Friday’s score against the Lloydminster Barons was unavailable at press time.
“We hope to gain some things to do against Bellerose so we’ll work on our game plan,” said Zaychkowsky, an All-Edmonton Football Team all-star receiver for the 1-7-1 Carr conference division one Blues who has committed to the Alberta Golden Bears.
