Knight time arrived with a provincial berth on the line this weekend.
The Holy Trinity Academy Knights edged the Foothills Falcons 67-56 to take the 4A Boys South Central Zone senior boys basketball banner on March 8 at Airdrie’s Bert Church High School.
“We’re just really excited for our guys, this was one of their goals this year,” said Knights head coach Sam Aiello. “Last year, it wasn’t meant to be so our guys returning really set a goal to try and get back to provincials, especially our Grade 12s and it worked out for us.
“Foothills is a solid team, we played them four times, arguably four really close games, and I just think playing them made us better.”
In a defensive stalemate, the Knights wrestled momentum in the second half, allowing just six points in the third quarter to build on a four-point advantage at the half.
“We really ramped up our defence and rebounded well and to hold a team like Foothills to 56 points is no easy feat,” Aiello said. “It was a close game and in that third quarter, we didn’t score great either with only 12 points, but I just felt like the momentum swung our way a little bit and if we could continue to play the defence we were playing, I felt that could carry us to a win.”
Xavier Krueger led HTA with 20 points, 22 rebounds and six assists with Lucas Barlow posting 14 and Owen Vanin scoring 13.
Falcons seniors Cache Perrett, with 22 points and five assists, and Van Kerrison, 21 points and 13 rebounds, paced the Foothills attack.
“It was a defensive battle and probably one of our poorest shooting games of the year, that being said HTA played tremendous defence,” said Falcons head coach Amron Gwilliam. “We got basically no easy looks. It wasn’t our best game, congratulations to them, they outplayed us in that particular game and hopefully they do well at provincials.”
The Knights took the previous three meetings in exhibition and tournament play, the last of which was a one-point nailbiter and all four were seesaw battles that went down to the wire.
“It’s always hard to play a team in a playoff situation when you haven’t lost to them because they don’t ever have anything to lose,” said Krueger. “We just came in and knew we had to be focused the whole time.
“We came in with a gameplan and came out and played really good defence, that was the really big thing.”
Foothills got the better of HTA in last year’s zone final, a big-time motivator for the holdover members of the Knights.
“After that game last year, we all told ourselves we’re not going through that again,” Krueger said. “So we came into this game really determined.”
Krueger said this year’s squad stands out for its collection of great attitudes with everyone excepting and thriving in their roles in the lineup.
This will mark the second appearance at the 4A provincials for the Knights senior boys, who previously competed at the 3A level, and first since 2022.
Barlow, Krueger, Chris Peloso and Jack Gilbert were part of HTA’s provincial journey two years ago.
“This might be some of my last basketball games ever and it means a lot that we get a chance,” Krueger said. “And I think we have a good shot, if we play well, we can really make a run here and surprise some people.”
The Alberta Schools’ Athletic Association (ASAA) 4A Provincial Basketball Championships run March 14-16 at Red Deer’s Lindsay Thurber High School.
For more information, go to asaa.ca/championships.
Wild card drama
Leading into the event, the expectation was the South Central Zone, boasting two top-10 teams in No. 7 HTA and No. 9 Foothills, would be granted two berths to provincials, one for the champion and the runner-up, before the provincial body ultimately allocated the wild card slot to the Edmonton zone.
The teams found out on the day the zone tournament started.
“More than anything it’s just completely disappointing for the boys,” Gwilliam said. “Based upon how all the policies work in the ASAA, everything was done by the book and so it’s hard to argue it. They have to follow the policy and they did.
“It’s really unfortunate we were the ones who got lost in the wake of that. Our zone deserved two berths, we had two teams in the top-10. It was frustrating and really difficult to have that change made, especially that last minute.”
Aiello said he felt the Falcons deserved to be at provincials given the season they’ve had.
“I really do feel the South Central Zone did earn two berths this year,” he said. “I really feel for Foothills Comp too, they’re one hundred per cent deserving to be at provincials, they deserved it by their schedule and their results this year.
“It’s unfortunate only one of us gets to go because I think both of us would have represented the zone really well.”
