Expectations are sky high for the No. 1 4A high school women’s basketball team in the province.
“It means we have a target on our back for the entire season,” said Bella Cuciz, a Grade 12 forward/guard for the St. Albert Skyhawks. “We are now the ones to beat and we need to keep running and pushing. We have and get everybody. We have no reason to let up. We have everything to lose right now.”
The first of the three Alberta Schools’ Athletic Association rankings was released Jan. 21 and Skyhawks, last year’s metro Edmonton division one champions and 4A provincial bronze medallists, were anointed as the team to fear.
Rounding out the top 10, in order, are the Bishop Carroll Cardinals (2018 provincial finalists) of Calgary, Centennial Coyotes (2018 provincial champions) of Calgary, Magrath Pandas, Western Canada Redhawks of Calgary, Jasper Place Rebels, Raymond Comets, Paul Kane Blues (2018 provincial consolation champions), Lethbridge Collegiate Institute Clippers and Salisbury Sabres.
The second 4A rankings come out Feb. 15.
The Skyhawks, with six newcomers, all Grade 10s, on the 13-player roster, were 15-5 overall entering the St. Mary’s Saints Senior Classic this weekend in Calgary.
“We have a lot of great teamwork for the most part, we do a lot of great sharing of the ball and we’re well coached,” Cuciz said. “We have a lot of young talent on our team, too, which helps tremendously.
“Overall, we have really good team chemistry. I don’t think there is a single girl on our team that brings anybody down. We have great enthusiasm on the bench and on the court as well.
“We’ve just got to really push each other in practice. If we can play really well in practice then we can push each other in a game and of course our cardio is always good then for a game and we can keep pushing until the end of the fourth quarter.”
Two of the last four league games before the Feb. 25 quarter-finals are must-see affairs – Feb. 11 against the Rebels (6-0) at 5:30 p.m. at Jasper Place and Feb. 20 against Paul Kane (4-1) at 6:30 p.m. at the SkyDome – and you can bet the farm the Skyhawks will play one or both in the playoffs.
The Skyhawks, winners of last year’s league final and provincial bronze-medal match against the Rebels, lost 66-52 to the host team of the REB Invitational at Jasper Place in the third-place game in December and split two with Paul Kane: the 79-75 double overtime setback in the REB semifinal and the 84-40 show of force in the Paul Kane Invitational final Jan. 12.
“We were thrilled that we won that game,” said Cuciz of the Skyhawks sealing the deal at halftime up 46-17 at Paul Kane. “We were in their heads for a little bit.
“We’ve just got to make sure we beat them when it counts.”
The Skyhawks tipped off their fifth tournament of the season against the La Crete Lancers, ranked No. 2 in 2A, before facing the No. 7-ranked Comets or William Aberhart Orange of Calgary. Scores from Calgary were unavailable at press time.
Paul Kane was slotted on the opposite side of the eight-team draw.
“We’re looking forward to some good competition down there,” Cuciz said.
The Skyhawks returned to the hardwood Wednesday after the exam break and improved to 6-0 by pounding the Leduc Tigers 87-23 at the SkyDome.
Period scores were 26-5, 51-8 and 77-11 and the longest point run was 25 after Leduc opened the second quarter with a three-pointer.
Teá DeMong, the MVP of the Paul Kane Invitational, racked up 26 points, Annacy Palmer tossed in 17, Kamryn DeKlerk sank 11 and Morgan Harris added 10 against the Tigers (3-4), who would have a tough time beating the Richard S. Fowler Falcons, the two-time defending St. Albert Physical Education Council Tier I junior high city champions.
“We did a lot of transition which helped us get our legs back a little bit before we go and play this weekend,” Cuciz said. “Overall, today was really beneficial just to keep our spirits high and our intensity high for this weekend.”
Cuciz, 17, was her usual robust self despite an awkward-looking leg brace holding her left knee in place. A rugby injury with the 2017 Bellerose Bulldogs resulted in ACL surgery in November that year and she spent the entire basketball season as the team’s statistician, cheerleader and student manager.
The road to recovery for Cuciz “was really difficult but I had to keep pushing through,” said one of the four Grade 12s on the team. “I wasn’t in shape. There was a lot of cardio that had to come back into me. I had to come into the gym for additional reps and try and get my shot back in general because I lost an entire year of reps that I would be getting in practice and in games. I was just able to take some of our girls out of practice or after practice and they were really good to help me get in some reps before we started our season. (Head coach John) Dedrick is also good about pushing me through practice and listening to me when my knee is kind of rough.
“Overall, I’m feeling really strong and ready to go.”
The physical defender with Gordie Howe elbows can also slash her way to the hoop despite the brace and is a long ball threat from behind the arc.
“As you can see here, we were still a really strong shooting team and we had really good offensive drives, I just felt we were lacking a bit of intensity on defence last year and I was hoping to bring that this year and I hope to keep pushing even more.”
The next league game is 5:30 p.m. Monday against the host Strathcona Lords (4-2), a 4A honourable mention team.
The Skyhawks are also hosting a tournament Feb. 15-16.
