Lessons were learned by the Paul Kane Blues in Monday’s 25-point loss in high school men’s basketball.
The two-time defending metro Edmonton premier conference champions paid the price for falling behind by nine points in the opening 10 minutes and by 22 at halftime before going down to defeat 67-42.
“It was a learning experience,” said Zane Warren, a Grade 11 shooting guard. “We didn’t take it to them in the first quarter. We started off terrible by not shooting well and not running our offence from the get-go and that’s how we played the whole game.”
The loss was the third in 11 days against O’Leary, who the Blues beat in the 2012 premier final. The Blues fell by 24 at the Mike Dea Classic and by four at the Rise Up tournament, hosted by the Sturgeon Spirits last weekend, before dropping their home opener in league play.
The Blues are 3-6 overall with only three returnees in the line-up after graduating eight players from the eighth-place team at the 2012 4A provincials.
“I guess you could say it’s frustrating but we have a bunch of Grade 10s so we expect mistakes obviously because they’re coming out of junior high. We’ve just got to be patient, work hard in practice and just show hustle and heart in the game,” Warren said.
“We need to talk more too. No one is talking, and that’s partly on me and Jacob (Laxdal, a Grade 11 post) because we’re the leaders of this team. We’ve got to command our guys, get them in all the right spots and run the offence.”
The Blues struggled putting the ball through the hoop in the third tilt with O’Leary. Warren and Grade 11 guards Theo Block and Frankie White had eight points apiece to lead the team. Grade 10 forward Quinn Peterson added seven and Grade 12 forward Mark Sherstan drained two three-pointers.
“We missed a ton of shots,” Warren said.
The aggressive, freewheeling Spartans jumped out to leads of 18-9 after the first quarter, 42-20 at the break and 61-29 after three quarters.
“We just can’t get off to these lazy starts as a team. That’s what sets the tempo for the whole game and then in the third quarter we’ve got to chip away at a lead and that’s difficult for a young team to do,” Warren said. “We’ve just got to regroup, work hard in our next practice and be resilient.”
Warren, 16, sees light at the end of tunnel for the Blues, who are breaking in five Grade 10 and two Grade 11 players.
“Actually we’re pretty good for a bunch of Grade 10s and three returners. We’re a decent team. We’ve been hustling in practice. We’ve been working on our shooting all the time and the fundamentals so we don’t make those kinds of mistakes,” said the member of the 2011 SAPEC Tier 1 junior high champion Vincent J. Maloney Marauders.
FREE THROWS: Tonight the Blues (1-1) visit the Bev Facey Falcons (2-0) at 6:15 p.m.
The next home game is Monday versus the St. Albert Skyhawks (0-2) at 4:45 p.m.
At the Sturgeon tournament the Blues beat the W.P. Wagner Warriors, followed by losses of 80-76 to O’Leary and 90-77 to the Archbishop MacDonald Marauders, a city conference team.
This weekend the Blues are competing in the Salisbury Sabres tournament.
