Winning a provincial berth was a dream come true for the Paul Kane Blues after last year’s nightmare in the Edmonton zone playoffs.
The lady Blues qualified for the 4A championship tournament in Raymond with Friday’s 59-51 victory against the Strathcona Lords at The King’s University College.
“It felt magnificent, especially after last year,” said co-captain Joanna Long. “We deserved it.”
Last year, with a rare trip to provincials at stake, the Blues dropped a 70-51 decision to the Harry Ainlay Titans in a game to determine the fourth and last zone rep.
“We knew how close we were last year and what it felt like to lose that game and we didn’t want that to happen again,” Long said.
The provincial opener for the 10th-seeded Blues is 3 p.m. Thursday against the seventh-seeded Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs of Calgary.
Long said the Blues are determined to play the role of spoilers in the 16-team draw.
“We’re going to try and upset some teams and play some hard basketball.”
The Blues were unranked in 4A before the zone double elimination tournament. The metro Edmonton premier conference team finished 12-8 in the regular season and won four of six games in the league and zone playoffs.
“The two main goals we focus on every game is hard rebounding and solid defence. We’ve done that constantly in every game and that’s what got us this far,” Long said.
The Blues rebounded smartly from their 82-43 semifinal loss to the St. Albert Skyhawks in the premier playoffs for a successful run at zones.
“They’re a great 3A team but we wanted to focus on provincials and our rankings so after that game we just said, ‘That’s over with. It’s done,’” Long said. “We just needed to focus on the bigger picture.”
The zone playoffs started with a 54-52 decision against the O’Leary Spartans to see who would be ranked second and third from metro in the tournament. Melissa Woolley sank a team-high 16 points and Josee Larson added 14 points and 12 rebounds.
In the next game Woolley tossed in 19 and Larson had 13 in the 59-43 win over Harry Ainlay at Paul Kane.
With two games left to secure a spot at provincials the Blues poured everything they had into beating Strathcona.
“There was a lot of anxiety and we just had to keep our heads about us and focus on that game,” Long said. “We had played them before and I think we had won by five. We knew it was really going to be a hard game and we practiced a long time for it.”
The Blues outscored Strathcona 16-12 in the first quarter and led by three at halftime. In the third quarter each team tacked up 19 points.
“Both teams were really getting tired because it was a long week of games but near the end of the third quarter and in the fourth we had more gas than they did. We fought really hard and we just pulled it out,” Long said. “They also had three starters who fouled out in the fourth quarter so that was the time to take it.”
The five-foot-three Grade 12 post dominated the boards with 10 rebounds while going toe-to-toe with Strathcona’s six-foot-one pivot.
“I guess I had the honour of playing against her,” Long said. “We don’t have the tallest players so we worked a lot on fronting their post. We also took really smart shots and made sure all of our shots counted.”
Woolley led the attack with 18 points and pulled off six steals. The Grade 12 guard averaged 17.5 points per game in the zone playoffs.
Long, 18, chipped in with 15 and Larson had 12 in the team’s biggest victory of the season.
“We got so pumped up at the end. We were cheering so loud,” Long said. We knew there was another game to play but we just needed to really celebrate that win.”
In Saturday’s playoff at Concordia University College to determine the second and third zone reps the Blues lost 72-55 to the Archbishop Jordan Scots, seeded fifth at provincials.
“We were all exhausted and I think in our heads we let it go a little bit because we knew we were already guaranteed a spot,” Long said.
