First-place in the Foothills Athletic Council came down to one shot.
Riley Thorn nailed a buzzer beater three-pointer as the Holy Trinity Academy Knights knocked off the Strathmore Spartans 83-80 in the FAC senior boys basketball regular season finale on Feb. 26 in Okotoks to lock down the top-seed entering the league playoffs.
“We had 1.4 seconds left and ran an out of bounds play on the side and had an open-shot and it went in,” said Knights head coach Sam Aiello. “(Strathmore) has got a really talented team, they work hard, they’ve got some nice players.
“We’ve had two good games with them, they’re not easy to beat.”
Both teams finished with identical 7-1 records and split the season series 1-1. The tiebreaker came down to point differential with HTA owning a one-point edge through the two matches.
“We had come off two weeks off there, that was our first game back and we didn’t play exceptional,” Aiello said. “We played okay, I still think we can play a little bit better.
“But I just think playing in those close games prepares you for the post-season games that might get close and you’ve got some experience in those type of situations.”
The Knights will host the FAC semifinal (March 4 at 7:15 p.m.) against the fourth-seed, who that is lined up across the floor is yet to be determined.
The Strathcona-Tweedsmuir Spartans and Holy Cross Collegiate close out league play on March 3 with a number of potential playoff implications still at play.
If the Spartans win they will finish third and High River’s Notre Dame Collegiate Timberwolves will be fourth.
“We’ve had a nice season,” the coach added. “These guys have known each other for a longtime, they’ve played together for years now and I’m just excited, especially for our Grade 12s. This is kind of their push in their last two or three weeks here.
“That’s kind of what our message has been. Do you want to play for two more weeks or three more weeks? And most of our guys are looking like they would like to make an attempt to make it to provincials.
‘It will be a tough road, but I think our guys will be ready to play and I think they’re excited for that chance to possibly get to provincials this year for the first time, at 4A anyways.”
HTA will also be hosting the league championship on March 7, with the JV girls and boys kicking things off at 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. followed by their senior varsity counterparts at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.
The Knights are home to the 4A South Central Zone Championships for boys and girls from March 10-12 featuring HTA, the Foothills Falcons and Chestermere Lakers. March 10 will see the Lakers and Knights clash, the following day features the Lakers and Falcons and March 12 puts forth the highly anticipated Falcons and Knights matchups.
The girls games are 5:30 p.m. starts with the boys playing at 7:15 p.m. each day.
