There are three things in life you can count on: the Edmonton Oilers missing the playoffs, high taxes in St. Albert and the Skyhawks beating the Paul Kane Blues in high school women’s basketball.
The tradition continued in the Battle of St. Albert on Monday as the Skyhawks walloped the Blues 73-46 inside a packed Paul Kane gymnasium.
The metro Edmonton division one teams were deadlocked at 6-1 for second place in the standings prior to the most anticipated basketball tilt of the season in St. Albert.
“This win sends a good statement out there, especially with the rivalry we have with PK. It shows that SACHS is still strong enough to compete with them,” said Jessa Ivicak, co-captain of the No. 4-ranked 4A team in the province at St. Albert Catholic High School. “It was a good test for us. PK was talking about us before this game so it was good to see where we were with them. It also kind of sets the tone for the second half of the season.”
The 18th win in 20 games for the 2014 4A provincial bronze medallists was a done deal after the opening 10-minute period and the Skyhawks in total control at 25-9.
“We had them in the first quarter. Sure, they came back (to trail 39-22 at halftime) but we made a big push again and we didn’t really let them catch up,” said Ivicak, one of five Skyhawks to score double digit points against a leaky Blues defence.
Losing by 27 points was on par with last season’s showdown in St. Albert results as the Blues dropped all three games – the Skyhawks Invitational final, league contest and playoff semifinal – by an average margin of defeat of 26.6 points.
The last time the Blues upset the Skyhawks was 75-66 in the 2011 metro premier conference semifinal at the SkyDome and the infamous post-game celebration was posted on YouTube.
When asked if the Blues were discouraged by the latest loss, Rachel McIntyre replied: “Not really. We played our hardest,” said the Grade 12 point guard. “They have been a good team for a lot of seasons but we’re progressively getting better and we did better than we did last year so that’s actually encouraging.
“It was really nice to finally play them and see where they were at too.”
McIntyre stressed the game was closer than the score indicates.
“We gave it our best shot,” she said. “We started off really hard and then they just kind of pulled ahead with some easy little shots and we just fell behind from there but we all kept a really good positive attitude about it and we played hard until the very end and I think that is what’s important.”
The Skyhawks never relinquished the lead after Riki Steward nailed two free throws in the first minute to open the scoring. Steward led all scorers with 16 points, including 10 in the first half, and was a dominating presence in the paint.
The Skyhawks closed out the period with a 15-0 run in the last 3:16 minutes with Jamie Bain, Steward and Ivicak racking up the points.
Bain tacked up nine of her 14 points before halftime and her three-pointer with 6:44 left in the first half made it 30-14.
In the third quarter, the Skyhawks outscored the reeling Blues 23-10 on the strength of a 14-2 run before Paul Kane called a time out with 5:24 remaining in the quarter while down 53-24.
Bain’s second three of the game with only seconds left until quarter time drew a standing ovation from her teammates on the bench.
At times the Skyhawks were their own worst enemy. A startlingly high number of travelling calls in the Paul Kane zone by the Skyhawks left assistant coach John Dedrick shaking his head in disbelief.
“We had lapses but we composed ourselves a lot and we pushed back strong,” Ivicak said. “We worked really hard as a team and chipped away at the score, like a point or two at a time.”
Ivicak, Dargis and Marinya Marcichiw finished with 10 points apiece.
Ivicak, a Grade 12 Skyhawk who is listed as a five-foot-nine guard but plays more like a power forward, bullied the Blues in the paint for the majority of her points.
Dargis tossed in all of her points in the second half while Marcichiw had more travelling calls than field goals (two) in the first half.
Offensively the Blues couldn’t hit sand falling off a camel and every missed shot was gobbled up by the hungry and more determined Skyhawks.
The Blues were led by Sydney Hurlburt’s 10 points. Ashley Thomas produced nine points and McIntyre and Allison Hunder had six apiece.
The Skyhawks and Blues are on opposite sides of the draw when the Titans Tri-Prov tips off Thursday at the Harry Ainlay and Louis St. Laurent high schools.
“Hopefully we’ll see them again in the tournament,” McIntyre said.
The Blues play the Peacock Tornadoes of Moose Jaw at 3 p.m. at Harry Ainlay.
Friday at 2 p.m. the Blues will face the host Titans or the 4A provincial champion Raymond Comets in the consolation bracket or in the semifinals.
“We’re going to go at it with our best attitudes and play our hardest and hope for the best because I know we’re all very good players,” McIntyre said.
The Blues are 13-7 overall after Monday’s loss and their highest tournament finish was second place at last month’s Paul Kane Classic.
“At the beginning of the season our team got really sick and injured so now that we’re all healthy we’re playing a lot stronger,” McIntyre said. “We’re actually a stronger shooting team this year and that has really helped us a lot thus far.”
McIntyre, 17, is one of six players back from the 2014 4A provincial consolation finalists. The team’s overall record was 26-11, including an 11-3 mark in division one.
Provincials are March 19 to 21 at Jasper Place High School.
“Provincials is definitely the ultimate goal and we’ll do really well there if we all apply ourselves and work hard and play our best,” McIntyre said.
The first game for the Skyhawks at Tri-Prov is 5 p.m. Thursday against the Ross Sheppard Thunderbirds at Louis St. Laurent.
The Skyhawks will battle the Jasper Place Rebels or Oak Park Raiders of Winnipeg in the consolation bracket or in the semifinals Friday at 4 p.m.
The consolation final is 10 a.m. Saturday, the third-place game is 2 p.m. and the final is 6 p.m.
The Skyhawks are winners of three tournaments and finished third once.
“It would be good to finish off another tournament with a win. It would be another confidence booster for provincials, which is our big goal,” said Ivicak, 17, one of eight returning Skyhawks from last season’s 30-5 squad. “As we do with every tournament, we’re going in strong and confident and we’re going to push the ball in every game as we get ready for provincials.”
Visit http://triprov.ainlay.ca/ for the schedule and results.
FREE THOWS: Today in league play the Skyhawks, last year’s division one finalists, host the Edmonton Christian Lions (5-2) at 5:30 p.m. and the Blues visit the Leduc Tigers (4-4) at 6:30 p.m.
