The St. Albert Skyhawks and Paul Kane Blues lost their respective quarter-final matches at provincials Friday morning in high school men's basketball.
At the 3A tournament in Camrose the Skyhawks were outscored 18-12 in the fourth quarter in the 58-48 win by the host team.
The Blues took it on the chin for the second year in a row against the No. 1 seed at the 4A tournament, as the Harry Ainlay Titans overpowered the two-time defending metro Edmonton premier champions 103-70 in Cardston.
In last year's quarter-finals the Raymond Comets whipped the Blues 97-52 en route to a provincial gold medal in Edmonton.
Skyhawks battle
Down by seven at halftime, the Skyhawks pulled even with Camrose early in the fourth quarter before the game slipped away from them.
"The boys battled and played hard," said head coach Evan Holstein. "Our whole goal going into the fourth quarter was just to be in striking distance. We were within four points and then when we tied it up at 40-40 we thought the momentum was swinging our way and then we just kind of got cold. We couldn't really hit a shot, the ball wasn't really bouncing for us and we got a couple of questionable calls."
At halftime the Skyhawks trailed by seven.
"We were our own worst enemies. We knew what we had to do and in the first half we didn't really execute the game plan," Holstein said. "We came out of the half and made adjustments. We kind of switched up our pressure and went into a little bit of a zone. They struggled from the outside so that gave us more possessions and we went on a run. We played some hard defence and got stops but unfortunately we couldn't finish a couple of things we should have."
Camrose was seeded third and the Skyhawks were sixth in the 12-team draw.
The loss dropped the Skyhawks into the consolation bracket. A win Friday afternoon against the seventh-seeded St. Thomas Aquinas Thunder would send the metro Edmonton premier team into Saturday's 9 a.m. consolation final for fifth place. Friday's score was unavailable at press time.
"We want to go out higher or better than when we came in and we still have that opportunity to reach that goal," Holstein said.
Thursday in the tournament opener the Skyhawks crushed the 11th-seeded Beaverlodge Royals 89-49. Cam Vilcsak shot the lights out for 36 points and Cole Aikens tossed in 24.
Blues bounced
For the second week in a row the Titans outscored the Blues by more than 30 points.
After pounding the Blues 100-66 in the Edmonton zone final the Titans racked up period leads of 25-17 after the opening 10 minutes, 51-27 at halftime and 75-54 after three quarters.
Khalil Bertin sank a team-high 15 points, Hyrum Sutton added 14 and Tyler Wise had 10 against the Edmonton public league champions.
Friday night the eighth-seeded Blues played the fifth-seeded Catholic Central Cougars in their quest to finish seventh in the 16-team draw. The score was unavailable at press time.
The Blues tipped off the tournament in Thursday's 88-52 victory over the Comets in Raymond. Wise and Peter McKay drained four three-pointers apiece. Wise finished with 28 points, McKay scored 14 and Bertin had 13.
Meanwhile, the lady Blues fell 47-28 to the Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs in their first game at provincials Thursday in Raymond. At halftime the seventh-seeded Bulldogs led 24-13. Chantal Jouan scored 10 points and Josee Larson made two three-pointers for the 10th-seeded Blues.
Lady Skyhawks
The opening game in the women's draw for the two-time defending 3A provincial champion Skyhawks was Friday afternoon against the seventh-seeded Springbank Phoenix.
A win would lift the second-seeded Skyhawks into Friday night's semifinal against the sixth-seeded W.R. Myers Rebels or the third-seeded Holy Trinity Academy Knights.
Friday's scores were unavailable at press time.
In today's medal playoffs the third-place game is 1 p.m. and the final is 5 p.m. in Camrose.
Going into provincials the Skyhawks were 31-6 as the undefeated metro Edmonton premier conference champions.
