You can add the Paul Kane Blues to the long list of teams the St. Albert Skyhawks have defeated this season in high school women’s basketball.
Monday’s outcome was never in doubt, as the 2012 metro Edmonton premier conference champions and three-time reigning 3A provincial gold medallists rolled to a convincing 83-54 victory at Paul Kane High School.
“We came out really excited for this game. We were pumped to play against a rival in St. Albert. They’re a good team too and good competition,” said Paige Knull, a Grade 12 Skyhawks forward.
The Skyhawks put the finishing touches on their 14th win in 14 games by outscoring the Blues 21-9 in the third quarter for an insurmountable 60-38 lead with 10 minutes to play.
“When we started to break away we ran the floor really well and pushed and looked for the open man. We looked for one another more than just going by ourselves,” Knull said.
Grade 12 guard Amber Easthope racked up four three-balls and a game-high 29 points, including 14 in the first half. Grade 11 forward Kayla Ivicak tossed in 18 points and Knull added 15 for the No. 1-ranked 3A team in the province.
“Obviously we love being in that spot but we need to work harder and harder to stay in that spot because we know we have a target on our back from every team we’re going to play. We know that everyone is going to come out big against us,” Knull said.
The Skyhawks are now 4-0 in premier and 10-0 in three tournaments after going 34-6 last season.
“Everyone is super excited to be where we are because we all want the results we’re getting,” Knull said. “We’re working really hard in every practice and every game trying to improve and our record shows just how much hard work will pay off.”
The Skyhawks were never in any danger of falling behind the Blues despite a relatively slow start by team standards. They held comfortable leads of 24-16 after the first quarter and 39-29 at halftime before blowing the game wide open.
“We need to learn how to come out strong and bring our whole game instead of starting in the second half,” Knull said.
The Blues made the Skyhawks quiver a little bit early in the second quarter, when co-captain Chantal Jouan nailed a three-pointer and a field goal to trim the deficit to four points. The Skyhawks responded with a nine-point run to make it 34-21. The Blues added four field goals in a row before the Skyhawks called a timeout with 1:28 left in the half. Easthope’s three-pointer and Jessa Ivicak’s two free throws closed out the first half scoring.
“They’re an amazing team but we put in a really good fight. We worked really hard. We played some strong defence and had some amazing moments on offence,” said co-captain Josee Larson, the top scorer for the Blues with 17 points.
Sydney Hurlburt sank 11 points and Jouan finished with 10.
The Blues’ downfall was a lack of a deep bench to carry them through the second half and a one-dimensional offence that relied heavily on three-point shooting. Five players combined for seven three-balls, led by Larson’s three from outside the arch.
“In the second half they just had more depth and ran us. We were tired and not hustling like we should be,” Larson said. “We just have to keep working hard and remember to get back on defence because they’re a quick team and that’s something that we were lacking clearly in this game. They just outran us.”
The loss was the third in four games in premier for the Blues, 7-4 overall this season.
“It’s a good learning experience. We’re a young team so we’re going to have some losses. We’re working hard and really improving so we just have to take it in stride and see what we need to improve on,” said Larson, a third-year senior player. “We’re a super athletic team and we’ve made great strides already as a team. We just need to keep working for February and March and make sure we’re ready for the end of the season.”
The highlight so far was winning the Rise Up tournament, hosted by the Sturgeon Spirits. The Blues defeated Memorial of Stony Plain 74-31, Sturgeon 66-30 and Edmonton Scona 49-35 in the final. Larson, the tournament MVP, was the leading scorer against Scona with 15 points.
“It was definitely a confidence booster for our team. We played three good games,” said Larson, 17.
Last weekend the Skyhawks won their third tournament in a row by defeating the Edmonton Christian Lions 44-32 in the final of the Sabres Classic in Sherwood Park.
The Skyhawks also beat J. Percy Page 94-25 and the No. 8-ranked 4A O’Leary Spartans 75-44.
“I don’t think we played as well as we wanted to. We still put in the hustle and the heart but we weren’t scoring as well on offence as we wanted and we weren’t getting the looks. We just need to work hard in practice to be able to know how to get scores and looks off everything,” said Knull, 17.
Today in league play at 4:45 p.m. the Skyhawks host the St. Francis Xavier Rams and the Blues visit the No. 4-ranked 4A Archbishop Jordan Scots.
