It was an up and down tournament for the host team at the Paul Kane Invitational.
The ultimate high of beating the Jasper Place Rebels in overtime for the Paul Kane Blues was followed by the lowest of lows in losing to the rival St. Albert Skyhawks on Saturday.
The Blues looked down and out falling behind by 29 points in the first half of the 84-40 final against the Skyhawks after rising to the challenge against the Rebels to seize the moment in extra time for the 67-66 semifinal win.
“We didn’t play our best game,” said tournament all-star Bella Gaulden of the team’s worst defeat this season. “We were really tired from our last game versus JP because we played really, really good.”
The Skyhawks grabbed the final by the throat with a suffocating 19-0-point run in the second quarter before a basket by Ella Stanley left the Blues trailing 44-15 with 1:26 left until halftime.
“We knew they were going to come out strong and we stayed with them for a while,” said Gaulden of the 24-12 deficit at the end of the first quarter that grew to 46-17 at halftime. “We got into some foul trouble at the beginning so that wasn’t too good and then we got down on ourselves after they started scoring more.
“After a while we kind of thought we might as well just play through it and we finished strong as a team so that was good.”
The Blues were outscored 21-15 in the third quarter while falling behind by 37 points with the last 10-minute period remaining.
“It’s hard to get out of the fact that you’re losing by a lot but you’ve just got to remember to have fun. It’s not always about winning or losing as long as you’re having fun with your teammates which is what our team is about,” said Gaulden.
The slick Grade 11 guard netted 10 of her team-leading 17 points in the second half and the next highest-scorer on the Blues was Kayleena Garda with six.
Last month the Blues grinded out a 79-75 double overtime victory over the Skyhawks in the semifinals of the REB Invitational at Jasper Place with the St. Albert Catholic High School team missing three players including Teá DeMong, last weekend’s tournament MVP who bombarded the Blues with six three-pointers and 29 points in the final.
“The difference was in the first game (against the Skyhawks) we weren’t tired because we hadn’t played a game yet that day and we were all hyped up,” Gaulden said. “We were just really tired in this game and we weren’t as intense as we were the last time we played them because we just came off a big win against JP so that kind of got us.”
Saturday’s semifinals started at 11:30 a.m. for the Blues against the Rebels and 12:45 p.m. for the Skyhawks in the 76-53 win over the Bishop Carroll Cardinals of Calgary and the final tipped off just past 8 p.m.
The rip-roaring affair with the Rebels was highlighted by multiple lead changes as the teams traded scoring plays and defensive stops like two heavyweight boxers going eyeball-to-eyeball in the ring.
Period scores were 12-10 Rebels, 27-27 as Gaulden’s three-pointer knotted the count with a few seconds left in the first half, 40-39 Blues as Jules Froment nailed the go-ahead points with a three-ball with 6.3 seconds on the clock and 58-58 as tournament all-star Chelsea Marko capped off a five-point run with a clutch basket with 43 seconds to go in regulation time.
Before the final buzzer, both teams came within an eyelash of scoring the game-winning points.
Credit the Blues for not throwing in the towel down 50-42 after the Rebels erased a three-point deficit with nine answered points.
After a huge three-ball by Kaitlyn Kluttig pulled the Blues closer at 52-51, Grade 11 guard Jenna Rinsky unleashed a straight-ahead three-pointer for the Rebels to pad the lead by four with 2:44 remaining.
Rinsky, a tournament all-star, added a free throw to make it 58-53 with two minutes left and 14 seconds later Stanley converted the first of two free throws to kick-start the game-tying comeback.
“It was nerve-wracking, it was exciting, it was all the above,” said Raeesa Cherniwchan, who closed the gap at 58-56 with a determined bucket with 1:16 to play. “It was so much fun because we’re playing against such good girls and such a good team.”
In overtime, Cherniwchan lifted the roof with a thunderous three-pointer to break a 62-all deadlock with 2:43 remaining in the five-minute period.
“I saw the shot clock was running down so I just decided I was going to put it up because I didn’t think I had a lane,” said the top-notch Grade 11 forward/post, who deposited a defensive rebound to give the Blues some breathing room at 67-64 with 59 seconds to go.
Rinsky’s basket cut the lead to a single digit with 33 seconds left as the U17 Team Alberta player finished with a game-high 24 points.
The Blues never wavered with the one-point advantage as the OT frame drew to a frantic close.
“It was gut check time for us,” said Cherniwchan, 16, who contributed 15 points to the cause. "We played so good. Actually both teams played phenomenal. Anyone could’ve won it. You kept going, you kept persevering. It was really any team’s game.”
As for the Blues' will to win, “It was definitely working as a team and just knowing each other’s strengths and everyone doing their part. No one was outshining anyone else. We all did a really good part in hustling and running the plays and executing really well,” Cherniwchan said.
Gaulden, 16, sliced and diced her way to a stellar 23 points, including two three-balls.
“I just had lots of motivation to beat them because we’ve lost to them before,” said Gaulden of the 67-59 setback in the metro Edmonton division one opener against a Jasper Place roster of four Grade 10s, eight Grade 11s and no Grade 12s, as well as the team going 1-4 against the Rebels last season.
“I was taking it to the hoop and just going in hard,” Gaulden added. “Every shot was kind of falling for me, too, so that was good.”
Stanley also tossed in 10 points and recorded nearly an equal amount of stuffs, swats and rejections in the paint against the winners of the last two PK tournament finals against the Blues.
This year’s tournament opener for the Blues was Friday’s 79-47 victory over the Catholic Central Cougars of Lethbridge as Stanley produced 12 points, Froment and Garda added 10 apiece and Gaulden and Cherniwchan each had eight.
The Blues are 9-5 overall, including a 4-1 mark in league play, after falling short to the Skyhawks.
“Even though we lost this game, we beat JP so that will help us for a higher provincial ranking (in the top 10 listing for 4A teams),” said Gaulden, one of six returnees from the 2018 division one semifinalists and 4A provincial consolation champions.
