It’s proving to be a momentous challenge to keep up with the Knights on the court.
Led by its high-tempo attack, the Holy Trinity Academy Knights senior girls won their third straight tournament title with a dominant showing at Calgary’s All Saints Legends Elite Eight competition, Jan. 14-15.
“They’re certainly starting to hit their stride,” said Knights head coach Scott Royce. “They’re super intense, super high-tempo, super fast and the four point-guards just consistently really push the pace and that just keeps the entire team running, executing.
“Everything is done at a high speed, which is really, really fun to watch.”
The four aforementioned floor generals — Ariana Dela Paz, Evonne Henning, Sadie Bull and Francine Sarmiento — have allowed the Knights to play at a pace other teams are unaccustomed to and the results have followed.
“They really push the tempo and they just love to run,” Royce said. “They love to go hard the entire game and even when I ask them ‘Guys, let’s back off a bit,’ they will, but they don’t like it.
“And yet when the game is over, to a person, they’re all chill and it seems like just another day at the office.”
In the tournament final at the Elite Eight, Jill Bonertz paced the offence with 19 points, Georgia Hodgkins had a solid effort with eight points and Dela Paz was the team’s player of the game as HTA overpowered the host team by a 77-21 score. Bonertz, a Grade 11 student, was the team’s tournament MVP.
“It’s the speed and everyone is committed to our different defensive looks,” the coach added. “Everyone commits, everyone plays their part and, for the team, that’s huge.”
Earlier in the competition, the Knights delivered a 74-49 victory over St. Francis with Bull earning player of the game honours and.
The second match saw the Okotoks school dispatch Father Lacombe 77-36 with Henning as the player of the game.
“I don’t know any other way to put it other than they’re just having fun,” Royce said. “When someone either steals the ball or has a massive rebound or an outside shot, everyone on the floor or on the bench is smiling and extending kudos.
“I don’t know if they’re super-duper overanalyzing who they’re beating and what it all means.”
The Knights will get one of their stiffest tests of the season this weekend when the Raymond Comets arrive in Big Rock Country for a double-header action against the HTA boys and girls teams on Jan. 21 and then square off with the Foothills Falcons two senior teams the following day. The HTA and Raymond girls tilt is a 4:30 p.m. tip-off on Jan. 21.
“Raymond is probably the number-one seed for 4A girls in the province,” Royce said. “And I don’t mind saying that between us and Raymond there is probably a bunch of schools between us.
“That will be a test and we will just have to break it down and play one quarter at a time. No matter what happens, that will be good practice.”
