The St. Albert Skyhawks spread their wings during a dominating four-peat performance at their home tournament.
The Skyhawks barely broke a sweat clobbering the St. Francis Xavier Rams by 40 points before ratcheting up the intensity against the Medicine Hat Kwahommies and Miles Macdonell Buckeyes of Winnipeg and in both games the margin of victory was 26 points.
“We took more steps forward than steps backward this weekend,” said Sam Dargis, a Grade 11 point guard with the 16-2 Skyhawks.
The fourth annual Skyhawks Invitational was the third triumph in four tournaments this season for the No. 4-ranked women’s basketball team in Alberta.
“It was a good tournament to set the tone for the second half of our season and to see where we stand now after all of our practices over the Christmas break,” said Riki Steward, a defensive stalwart around the basket who also contributes offensively. “The team support and how we were always there for each other was great.”
The Kwahommies are ranked seventh in 4A and the Buckeyes are No. 4 in 4A in Manitoba. Both teams defeated the No. 10-ranked Chinook Coyotes of Lethbridge, last year’s 4A provincial silver medallists: 71-56 Kwahommies in the third-place game and 80-40 Buckeyes in the semifinals.
“There were some pretty good teams in this tournament. Medicine Hat has been doing very good down south and that win gets our confidence back and lets us know how the rest of province is doing basketball-wise,” Dargis said of the 67-41 decision against the Kwahommies. “The final was a similar game and we rose to the occasion. It was a better game than our semifinal.”
The Skyhawks were a lukewarm 3-2 in January before the tournament. The two losses in the same week – 61-46 to the No. 9-ranked 4A Jasper Place Rebels in league play and 66-62 to the defending 4A provincial champion Raymond Comets, ranked fifth in 4A in the semifinal of the Chinook Invitational – dropped the Skyhawks from first to fourth in the 4A rankings.
“This helps get our confidence back,” Dargis said. “We’re all ready to go now. We know it’s not going to get easier from here so we’ve got to keep working.”
The Skyhawks played probably their best quarter of the season while out-scoring the Kwahommies 31-10 in the opening 10 minutes. An inspired Marinya Marcichiw drained 10 of her team-high 16 points in the first period as eight of the 10 Skyhawks in the game recorded points before quarter time.
It was 12-0 when Jenna Spruyt put the Kwahommies on the board with an offensive rebound halfway through the quarter.
A field goal and three-pointer less than a minute apart by Brielle Wise made it 23-8 with 1:47 left in the quarter.
A commanding 39-22 halftime lead grew to 55-29 with one quarter to go against the Kwahommies, who beat the Paul Kane Blues 76-68 in the final of last month’s Paul Kane Classic.
“We knew they were going to be a harder team than SFX so we worked hard on our defence on doubling down, helping out on the big people and just knowing our rotations,” said Steward.
The rugged five-foot-11 Grade 12 forward split time with Jamie Cole in keeping close tabs on the six-foot-three Spruyt, who played on the same bronze-medal winning provincial team as Marcichiw and Wise at the 2014 Canada Basketball U17 nationals. Spruyt overpowered the Blues for 37 points and a gazillion rebounds but against the Skyhawks the Grade 12 post was limited to four points in the first half and 10 overall with two field goals and six free throws.
A balanced scoring attack included nine points by Wise before the Grade 12 forward and tallest Skyhawk at six-foot-one left the game with 2:04 left in the third quarter with an upper body injury.
Jessa Ivicak also posted nine points, Aphia Ward added eight and Steward had seven.
In the final the Skyhawks stormed out to period leads of 19-8 at the end of the first and 35-12 at halftime before tying the bow at 52-25 after three quarters.
“We came out really strong with the expectation that they were going to come out the same since they were a bigger team than us,” Steward said of the Buckeyes’ lineup featuring three players at six feet or taller.
The Skyhawks out-rebounded the Buckeyes by a sizeable margin as the Winnipeggers struggled putting the ball through the hoop.
“We played pretty solid defence. They had a really big big (six-foot-three Grade 12 post Haille Bujan) that a lot of people had trouble defending and our bigs did a really good job against her,” Dargis said. “Our guard defence was pretty good all around on the whole court too.”
Lana Mackic, a six-foot Grade 11 forward, scored a game-high 14 points and Bujan netted 11 for the Buckeyes.
The loss was only the third in 16 games for the Buckeyes, who finished second for the third time in four tournaments this season.
“We just came off our exam week and in that first game we were pretty flat but the girls found a way to get it done against a feisty squad,” said head coach Karl Schroeder of the 58-55 squeaker against the Edmonton Christian Lions, the defending 3A provincial champions who are ranked third in 3A.
“We played the best game we’ve played this year when we beat Chinook, a very good basketball team, by 40,” Schroeder added. “In this third game mentally we were fatigued and physically fatigued and it showed. The girls did show some real character to fight back a little bit in the second half but we had a real up-tempo game against Chinook and it was tough to really find the gas to go in this game but I’m proud of my girls nonetheless. It was a good tournament for us.”
All 10 Skyhawks generated points in the final.
“We had some lows and some parts where we didn’t score as often so we had to just execute and keep working on our offence,” said Steward, 17. “Everyone was being unselfish. We were sharing the ball a lot and making the extra pass.”
Wise recorded 11 of her 13 points in the first half, including three field goals in the first quarter.
Ivicak sank 11 points, Steward dropped in eight and Marcichiw and Ward contributed seven apiece.
Ward, a Grade 11 guard, and Dargis were solid contributors during the team’s successful weekend. This is their second season commuting back and forth on Anthony Henday Drive from Beaumont to hoop it up at St. Albert Catholic High School.
“It’s a 45–minute drive but on a good day it will be about 30 minutes,” said Dargis, 16. “It’s definitely difficult. You don’t see your families that often but it’s definitely worth it. The improvement we’ve made while being here is worth way more than being in Beaumont.”
FREE THROWS: Steward was the top scorer against the Rams with 19 points, followed by Ward with 11, highlighted by a pair of threes, Marcichiw’s 11 and Ivicak’s eight.
Period scores were 15-5 at the end of the first, 38-20 at halftime and 55-24 after three quarters.
Check out the Skyhawks’ team picture at www.stalbertgazette.com.
The Skyhawks (5-1) resumed league play in metro Edmonton division one in Monday’s 67-33 throttling of the St. Joseph Saints (4-3) at the SkyDome.
Wise led the Skyhawks with 18 points, Marcichiw tossed in 16 and Ivicak tacked up 15 while grabbing a team-high 12 rebounds.
Today at 5 p.m. the Skyhawks host the Archbishop Jordan Scots (2-3).
The Titans Tri-Prov junior tournament at Harry Ainlay High School tips off for the junior Skyhawks, the two-time defending metro division one junior champions, at 9 p.m. Thursday against Jasper Place.
The senior Skyhawks play their first Tri-Prov game next Thursday against the Ross Sheppard Thunderbirds at 5 p.m.
Visit http://triprov.ainlay.ca/ for schedules and results.
