The will to win was greater than an 18-point halftime deficit for the St. Albert Skyhawks in Monday’s come-from-behind thriller in high school basketball.
The ninth-ranked 3A men’s team in the province outscored the bewildered Paul Kane Blues 42-18 in the second half of the 70-64 victory.
“We never gave up,” said game star Levi Constantin with a satisfying smile etched across his face. “We really wanted to win the Battle of St. Albert. We’ve been basically beat or utterly destroyed by PK before so we were determined not to let that happen again.”
The second-half collapse by the two-time defending metro Edmonton premier conference champions in their home gym was shocking.
“It was bad. We should’ve owned that one,” said Grade 11 post Jacob Laxdal. “We got too ahead of ourselves in the second half. We came out not talking and not doing as well as we could.”
Down 46-28 after the first half, the Skyhawks pulled to within seven at the end of the third quarter.
It was 60-all when Grade 12 forward Brendan Thera-Plamondon’s bank shot put the Skyhawks on top to stay with 2:59 to play.
“When we came out for the third quarter we knew we wanted it more than them and we went out and got the momentum and ran with it,” said Constantin.
The six-foot-six Grade 12 Skyhawk terrorized the Blues in the second half for 14 of his team-high 23 points. Down the stretch he was a tower of power with three baskets during a game-breaking 10-point run, including the tying score to knot it at 60 with 3:38 remaining.
“I just did my job and worked,” said Constantin, 17.
The Skyhawks exploited a weak Paul Kane defence in the paint for the majority of their points in the second half.
“They killed us inside. That’s where we lost it. Levi probably scored 20 odd points just off little post moves,” said the six-foot-four Laxdal.
The Blues wilted under intense defensive pressure after lighting up the Skyhawks in the first half. Laxdal racked up 18 points before halftime, but was limited to only eight points on free throws for the remainder of the game with Roberto Sanchez-Enkerlin keeping close tabs on Paul Kane’s main offensive threat.
“We dug in on defence and that’s what really won us this game,” Constantin said. “Our defensive stops led to lots of points. We got a lot of rebounds, especially on offence, and offensive rebounds win games.”
The Blues bolted into a 23-11 lead in the opening 10 minutes on the strength of Laxdal’s 14 points.
Four three-pointers in the second quarter by the Blues, including a pair of threes by Grade 10 forward Quinn Peterson, added to the team’s commanding lead.
“We came out tough. We talked very well. We passed the ball good. We ran our offence really well,” Laxdal said. “But in the second half we didn’t do that.”
The Skyhawks looked like a different team after halftime and it showed on the scoreboard.
“In the first half we weren’t really talking and not working as a team. We weren’t getting good offensive looks and never realized what our advantages were. In the second half we really found where we can get an advantage and just ran it until they found a way to stop it and then we just kept digging away,” said Constantin, one of eight Skyhawks on the roster from the team’s fifth-place showing at the 2012 3A provincials.
Sanchez-Enkerlin, a valuable Grade 12 forward, finished the game with 15 points and Grade 12 guard Cam Vilcsak drained four clutch free throws in the last 18 seconds to seal the deal as the Skyhawks improved to 2-2 in premier.
The Blues dropped to 1-3 in premier after their second loss in a row to a St. Albert team. Last weekend at the Sabres Classic in Sherwood Park, the Bellerose Bulldogs upset the Blues en route to winning the tournament title. In the league opener the Blues beat the Bulldogs by 26 points.
“Obviously we shouldn’t have lost to Bellerose. I really don’t know what happened there,” said Laxdal, 16, one of three returning players from the eight-place finishers at the 2012 4A provincials.
FREE THROWS: Today in league play the Sturgeon Spirits visit the Blues at 4:45 p.m. and Skyhawks host the O’Leary Spartans at 6:15 p.m.
O’Leary, ranked seventh in 4A, defeated the Spirits 90-52 in the final of the recent Rise Up tournament at Sturgeon. The Spirits and Blues are unranked in 4A.
Last weekend in Red Deer the Skyhawks lost the Notre Dame tournament final to the Strathcona Christian Academy Eagles by 20 points. The week before the Skyhawks downed the Eagles by nine points at the Strathcona Christian tournament.
