Beating the St. Albert Skyhawks in high school women’s basketball took longer than expected for the Paul Kane Blues but it was worth the wait.
“We hadn’t won since 2011 so it’s a really good milestone for us to finally get that win for Paul Kane and to show them what we can do,” said a glowing Allie Hunder, captain of the Blues, after the 53-49 comeback adventure Monday.
Down by eight points after three quarters, the Blues rose to the challenge to outscore the Skyhawks by a decisive 18-6 margin in the last 10 minutes of the metro Edmonton division one showdown.
“It feels great how we won it,” said a happy Anika Steele, a Grade 11 post who came through in the clutch with pivotal points down the stretch to sink the Skyhawks in the jam-packed Paul Kane gym.
“It’s a really good win for us to have right now.”
Three days earlier, the teams renewed their rivalry in the consolation bracket of the 35th annual REB Invitational at Jasper Place High School and the Skyhawks finished on top 67-49.
“We were just really hungry to win it after that loss and I think that hunger just made us more determined for this win,” Steele said.
The Blues played catch-up for the bulk of the rematch and their last-period surge marked the first lead since Hunder’s three-pointer to start the second quarter put the team on top 12-11.
At halftime it was 23-19 and after the break the Blues trailed by as much as 15 before rallying to close the gap at 43-35 at quarter time.
“We didn’t play as strong as we could’ve in the first half and we really came out shining in the second half,” said Hunder, a Grade 12 guard who tacked up 10 of her 14 points before halftime. “The turning point was our attitude. In the first half we were a little low and a little silent but we really knew that this was our game to win and we had to go out and use our energy and get the W.”
The Blues never lost faith when the Skyhawks were on the verge of pulling away.
“It was just really mental toughness. We were down but we can’t really let that snowball in our heads. We’ve got to focus on the good things and keep getting that energy up and up so we could win,” Steele said.
The tide turned near the end of the third quarter as Alesha Stanley’s three-point play and Ella Stanley’s field goal, followed by a three-ball with 18 seconds to go, capped off a 12-6 run to lift the Blues within striking distance of the Skyhawks.
“We started getting a lot of energy on the bench, which made us a lot more hyped for this game, instead of being more down on all of our mistakes. We were more happy on what we were doing right than more sad in what we were doing wrong,” Steele said.
The shift in momentum intensified during a 10-point romp in the last quarter, as a bucket by Bronwen Barter knotted the score and Steele’s spin move in the paint put the Blues ahead 45-43 with 4:18 remaining.
“Our energy and our entire bench and our entire group just pulled together and that helped us get points,” said Hunder, who deposited a nifty bank shot off a slashing drive that trimmed the lead to two points with 6:18 to play.
The Skyhawks were held pointless for six minutes in the quarter before tying it at 45.
The teams proceeded to exchange baskets as the action intensified. Baskets by Barter, who finished with a team-high 15 points, and Ella were matched by the Skyhawks before Steele’s layup made it 51-49 with 1:43 to play.
A sequence of misses and defensive rebounds by both sides ensued as the tension mounted.
After a timeout with 27.3 remaining, a shot off an inbound play was unsuccessful by the Skyhawks, forcing them to foul a couple of times and with 13.9 ticks on the clock Steele drained a pair of free throws for eight points in the quarter.
“We also tried to do the little things right and that’s what really got us through at the end and that’s what really made us win. It was the little things which turned out to be the big things at the end,” Steele said.
When the final buzzer sounded, the Paul Kane fans raised the roof in celebration for the first time against the Skyhawks since the 2011 metro Edmonton premier (division one) semifinal, 75-66 at the SkyDome.
“It’s pretty exciting,” said Steele, 16. “There is always pressure for every game but we didn’t lose our focus and we ended up pulling out the win.”
Ella and Hunder also wired a pair of three-balls as the Blues improved to 2-1 in league play and 6-3 overall.
The Blues were coming off a 1-2 performance at the REB. The only win was 65-48 over the Handsworth Royals of North Vancouver after the loss to the Skyhawks and the tournament-opening 73-44 setback to the Lethbridge Collegiate Institute Clippers.
Tegan MacKinnon logged a ton of minutes at the REB and led the scoring attack with 28 points last weekend and Steele drained 16 points against the Royals.
The Blues were also without Ella, a six-foot-one Grade 10 starter who was attending the national team identification camp for U16 tryouts and the potential cadet program. Her absence was noticeable against the Skyhawks but Hunder stressed Blues were not firing on all cylinders
“We just didn’t play like we knew we could, we didn’t push the ball like we could, we didn’t shoot like we could and our energy wasn’t there,” said Hunder, 17, who soldiered through a pretty bad cold for valuable court time at the REB.
The Blues will spend the Christmas break hooping it up in San Diego and next month they host the Paul Kane Classic Jan. 13-14.
