The St. Albert Skyhawks have a score to settle tonight after the Paul Kane Blues shook their world in high school women's basketball.
The last loss in league play for the two-time defending 3A provincial champions in the Metro Edmonton league was a surprising eight-point setback against the Blues in the 2011 Premier Conference semifinal at St. Albert Catholic High School.
The Blues celebrated their biggest victory in several years by posting the wild post-game festivities at the SkyDome on YouTube and the Paul Kane High School website. The Skyhawks were not amused.
"We're extremely excited to play them again, especially since it's in our gym," said Zoe Downing, co-captain of the Skyhawks.
The last league game until Feb. 1 for both teams because of the Christmas holidays and the January exam break tips off at 6:15 p.m.
"We're looking forward to that game. We know they've had a couple of losses lately so we're hoping we'll get them on a bad shooting streak because they can really shoot," said Paul Kane co-captain Melissa Woolley.
With five returning players in the fold the Blues are 3-1 in league and exhibition action.
"Everyone is really focusing hard on defence this year. We take pride in it. We like to shut teams down as best as we can," Woolley said. "We really do get our energy from our defence. When we make a good play on defence we carry that over to our offence."
Strong showing
Last weekend the Blues finished third at the Totem Hoop Classic at Ross Sheppard High School.
"We moved the ball really well, especially in our last game. Everyone was really involved and we moved it quickly so we were able to spread their defence and get in their holes," said Woolley, who averaged 16.3 points and five steals per game last weekend.
The tournament all-star at point guard scored 17 points in the 60-55 win over Strathcona in the opening game. Tiana Woyewitka added 16 points and grabbed a team-leading 11 rebounds.
Woolley, 17, also tossed in 15 points in a 72-46 loss to Spruce Grove.
In the third-place game Woolley drained 17 points and led the team with nine steals in the 54-32 victory against Louis St. Laurent. Kaitlyn Hunder chipped in with 10 points and three blocked shots. Woyewitka also had 10 points and shared the team lead in blocked shots with five.
The first game for the Blues after the tournament was Monday's 56-49 loss to the Sturgeon Spirits at Paul Kane. Woolley paced the attack with 16 points and Joanna Long scored 12.
"They had a really good shooting game and we didn't," Woolley said. "We're hoping [Tuesday] at practice we can get our shots falling again so we'll have a better shooting game [against the Skyhawks]."
The Blues trailed by 14 points at halftime.
"We didn't have our normal energy in the first half, but in the second half we started to come back and brought the score back a little bit," Woolley said.
Stung by losses
The Skyhawks are also looking to rebound after dropping two in a row against Calgary teams at the REB tournament last weekend at Jasper Place High School. They fell 63-47 to the Western Canada Redmen in the semifinal and 85-63 to the Centennial Coyotes in the third place game.
All three losses for the 7-3 Skyhawks this season were against 4A-level teams in tournaments.
"Those are fantastic 4A schools. We knew we were going to have to play tough against them and we just didn't step up enough," Downing said.
The Redmen led 26-18 at halftime and 39-33 at the end of the third quarter. Grade 11 forward Paige Knull scored a team-high 11 points against the tournament champions. Kendall Lydon pumped in 10 and Haley England and Amber Easthope had eight apiece.
"They're a fantastic team and for us to keep them at a score like that was really good for us. We're really proud," Downing said. "We worked our butts off the entire game. There wasn't a second where we weren't cheering on our teammates or hustling down the floor."
Against the Coyotes the teams were deadlocked at 22 apiece after the first quarter and 34-all at halftime. The Skyhawks were outscored 20-15 in the third quarter before fading in the last 10 minutes of play during a 23-2 point run by the Coyotes.
Montana Romeril riddled the Skyhawks for 30 points, including a handful of three-pointers.
Knull was outstanding for the Skyhawks with 20 points and several rebounds against the taller Coyotes. Lydon tacked up 10 despite being saddled with fouls.
"We picked it up near the end of the first quarter and we had a good second quarter as well. In the third quarter we had a lot of foul trouble and we just couldn't pull it together," said Downing, 17.
The Grade 12 shooting guard believes the Skyhawks have what it takes to three-peat at provincials with eight returning players in the line-up.
"We have a lot of team chemistry. We're also so athletic. We're great at pushing the ball and running transition," Downing said.
