Edmonton Christian – It’s now or never for the St. Albert Skyhawks to qualify for the 3A provincials men’s high school basketball championship.
The Skyhawks must beat the Leduc Tigers or Holy Trinity Trojans today in the B final in the Edmonton zone double elimination tournament for a berth at provincials.
Tip-off is 11 a.m. at the SkyDome.
Thursday’s devastating 79-78 loss to the Edmonton Christian Lions in the A final put the Skyhawks in the precarious must-win situation.
“We’ve got all the drive in the world right now to go out and win another game and personally as a Skyhawk I need more home games. It’s too bad it had to come from a loss but it will nice to play in the SkyDome one last time,” said an emotional Cam Vilcsak after the Skyhawks fought the Lions tooth and nail in the entertaining affair.
The Grade 12 guard took the last shot of the game with only a couple of ticks on the clock, but his awkward jumper from the top of the key hit the backboard and ricocheted out of harm’s way.
“It was more mental than physical and I kind of let the nerves get to me,” said a red-eyed Vilcsak, who pounded the floor with his fist in dismay after the buzzer.
The Skyhawks looked emotionally spent after emerging from a lengthy post-game closed-door session.
“It was probably a 10 out of 10 for me and the whole team,” said Grade 11 guard Dayn Scaber of the disappointing outcome. “We all played super hard. We all really wanted it but obviously they wanted it as bad as us too. It just came down to whoever had the last bucket.”
In the last quarter the lead changed hands six times and in the last three minutes the Skyhawks pulled even three times.
Scaber tied it at 75 with a three-pointer with 1:36 remaining and with 57 seconds to go he threaded the needle with a brilliant pass to set up Ben Crothers’ three-pointer from the corner to put the Skyhawks on top 78-77.
On the Lions’ next possession, Scaber pulled down a rebound and Vilcsak pushed the ball up the floor while working the clock down, then drove to the hoop but was unsuccessful in scoring.
The Lions grabbed the ball and basically connected on a long touchdown completion behind blown coverage in the Skyhawks’ secondary for an uncontested layup to give the home team a one-point edge with 11.4 remaining.
“We knew it was going to be a close game. Everybody was into it. That’s why we were fighting hard. It’s too bad about the result, said Vilcsak, 17, the team’s top scorer with 15 points.
Scaber, 16, said it shouldn’t have come down to the last shot of the game for the Skyhawks.
“We didn’t box out. We made a few mental errors down the road too, which kind of put us in a hole.”
The Skyhawks trailed 19-15 after the first quarter and 38-36 at the break on a buzzer-beating three-pointer by the Lions to end the half.
Four times in the second quarter the scrappy Skyhawks took the lead on a Scaber basket, a pair of threes by Crothers and a spectacular low-post move by Brendan Thera-Plamondon.
The back-and fourth contest continued in the second half as the Skyhawks jumped ahead briefly on Scaber's field goal with 1:26 left in the third quarter and Roberto Sanchez-Enkerlin’s three-pointer with 57 seconds to go before the Lions ended the period in front 55-54.
Clutch scoring plays by Thera-Plamondon, Sanchez-Enkerlin, Crothers, Vilcsak and Scaber in the last 10 minutes kept the Skyhawks in contention.
“We pushed the ball really well and we were shooting well,” Scaber said.
The Edmonton public league Lions also downed the Skyhawks 84-73 in the semifinals at the St. Peter the Apostle tournament.
In the provincial rankings the Lions are No. 4, the Skyhawks are No. 7 and Leduc is No. 8 as the only Edmonton zone teams to crack the top 10.
Leduc and the Trojans played Friday in the B semifinal but the score was unavailable at press time.
Leduc is a 2-9 metro Edmonton premier team the Skyhawks beat three times in four matches in league and tournament action. The lone loss was 67-66, as Leduc sank the winning basket with 0.6 seconds left in regulation time in the semifinals at the Skyhawks’ tournament.
The Trojans, 7-2 in the metro Edmonton city conference, are seeded fourth in the zone draw.
“It doesn’t matter who we play, we’ll go as hard as possible and try and beat them as hard as we can,” Scaber said. “We’ve got to get focused for that game, take out the positives from this loss and learn from our mistakes and then take that into the next game and play as hard as we possibly can to get into provincials.
“We just have to keep pushing the ball and running. That is our game.”
Last year the Skyhawks lost the A final to the Lions by four points and then defeated the visiting Beaumont Bandits by 15 in the second qualifier for their first trip to provincials in 15 years.
As the sixth seed at the 12-team provincials the Skyhawks finished fifth while going 21-17 overall.
With eight seniors, all returning players, in the line-up the Skyhawks are 5-6 in premier and 20-14 overall going into the today’s big game.
Provincials start Thursday afternoon at St. Peter the Apostle High School in Spruce Grove.
FREE THROWS: In the zone opener Tuesday in St. Albert, Scaber dropped back-to-back threes to beat St. Peter the Apostle 64-60. Scaber finished with 11 points and Vilcsak added 17.
Scaber led all scorers with 21 points in Wednesday’s 75-55 win over the Eastglen Blue Devils in St. Albert. Vilcsak drained 11 points and Sanchez-Enkerlin popped in 10.
