The St. Albert Skyhawks and the Morinville Wolves are seeded first and seventh, respectively, in the 12-team draw at the 3A provincial high school women’s basketball championship in Strathmore.
Thursday the Skyhawks have a bye and the Wolves play Strathmore, the 10th seed, at 1:45 p.m. The winner will challenge the second-seeded McCoy Colts of Medicine Hat, losers of the 2011 and 2012 provincial finals to the Skyhawks, in Friday’s 11 a.m. quarterfinal.
The three-time reigning champion Skyhawks will face eighth-seeded Eagle Butte or ninth-seeded Holy Rosary in Friday’s 9 a.m. quarterfinal.
Friday’s semifinals are 7 and 8:45 p.m. Saturday the third-place game is 3 p.m. and the final is 5 p.m.
Rounding out the top-four seeds are the No. 3 Edmonton Christian Lions and the No. 4 Camrose Trojans.
Skyhawks 36-1
The Skyhawks head into their ninth consecutive provincials with an overall 36-1 record after capturing their seventh-straight Edmonton zone title. This year three Edmonton zone teams qualified for provincials. The Skyhawks and Lions advanced after winning their semifinals. Ardrossan won the B final and is seeded 11th at provincials.
Last week in the A final to determine the first and second zone reps, the Skyhawks whipped the Lions 85-39 at the SkyDome.
In the semifinal, the Skyhawks crushed Ardrossan 97-33 for a provincial berth. Amber Easthope racked up 25 points, Kayla Ivicak sank 21 and Marinya Marcichiw added 10 for the undefeated metro Edmonton premier champions
The Skyhawks also throttled the Leduc Tigers 110-34 in the tournament opener.
Wolves 15-13
This is the fourth time in five years the Wolves are going to provincials, but the first year they have been seeded as high as seventh.
Morinville’s line-up of seven returning players and six Grade 12s compiled a 15-13 overall record, with most of the losses against 3A teams ranked ahead of the Wolves or 4A teams.
For the second consecutive year the Wolves played the Edwin Parr Predators of Athabasca in the North Central zone final. The Predators took an early lead and the Wolves were unable to get on track offensively and lost 54-30. The Wolves were without Grade 11 post Arinn Young, the team leader in rebounds and one of the top scorers, who suffered a knee injury in the semifinals.
At provincials the Predators are seeded fifth and the Wolves are the North Central wild card rep.
