The season is over for the St. Albert Raiders after the Red Deer Rebels swept the north division champions in the best-of-five midget AAA provincial final.
The Rebels won their third provincial title in a row in Tuesday’s 5-3 decision in Red Deer.
The Rebels also beat the Raiders 6-1 in the series opener in Red Deer and 4-1 Sunday in St. Albert.
The Raiders qualified for their first provincial final since 1998 after defeating the Leduc Oil Kings in four games in the best-of-five north playoffs for the Joe Cherrington Memorial Trophy. Leduc is the host team for next month’s Telus Cup national championship.
Kevin Miller led the Raiders in playoff scoring with five goals and eight points.
The Raiders finished the playoffs with six wins and five losses after placing second behind Leduc in the north at 21-9-4.
The Rebels won nine and lost one in the playoffs as the top team in the south at 25-6-3. They also posted victories of 4-3 and 4-1 against the Raiders in league play.
Kendall Lydon of the St. Albert Skyhawks and Tyler Wise of the Paul Kane Blues were selected the most valuable players in the metro Edmonton premier conferences in high school basketball.
Lydon, a high-scoring Grade 12 guard, is only the second St. Albert female to receive premier honours since the metro league was established in 1988/89. The first St. Albert recipient was Hilary Annich of the Skyhawks in 2010.
The Skyhawks won three consecutive 3A provincial titles and in league play went undefeated in 2010 and 2012 as premier champions with Lydon in the line-up.
Wise is the fourth Paul Kane male voted the best player in premier. Previous award winners were Phil Scherer in 1998, Evan Eger in 2007 and Klaus Figueredo in 2008.
Wise played a major role in the Blues winning back-to-back premier championships. The Grade 12 forward led the Blues to an eighth-place finish at the 4A provincials this year.
Wise and Lydon will play Canada West basketball this fall at the University of Alberta.
The St. Albert Minor Baseball Association’s house league and rep team evaluations start next week at Servus Credit Union Place.
The house league sessions are Monday for the rookie division, Tuesday for the mosquito division, Wednesday for the peewee division and Thursday for the bantam and midget divisions. Start times are 7 p.m.
The rep team evaluations get underway Saturday at noon for mosquitoes and peewees and 2:30 p.m. for bantams and midgets.
Visit www.stalbertbaseball.com for more information.
