The Holy Trinity Academy Knights girl’s basketball program is showing a lot of promise in the early part of the season.
Not only are the Senior girls undefeated in the Foothills Athletic Council (FAC) season, the JV girls showed the future looks bright by winning a tournament in Ardrossan earlier this month.
The Senior girls finished fifth at the Kate Andrews Basketball tournament in Coaldale on Dec. 17-18.
Although Holy Trinity Academy (HTA) finished with one win and two losses in the tourney, their two losses were against a pair of powerhouses in Alberta girls basketball.
They opened the tourney with a 69-51 loss to the McCoy Colts, who are expected to be the second-ranked 3A team in the province when the polls are released in the new year.
“We were down by 18 at the half,” Knights coach Ken Power said. “We ended up losing the game by 18, so the good thing is we were able to stay with them.”
The Colts used a full court press and ran up and down the floor on the Knights and they were also able to control the pace of the game in the opening 20 minutes.
“When our girls recognized that if they just settled down and execute instead of rushing things, we do very well,” Power said. “We came out of that game realizing that we can play with one of the best teams in the province.”
The Knights’ Melissa Bass had her best game of the year so far and was named HTA’s player of the game finishing with 17 points. Bethany Hartman had 10 points and seven rebounds, while Riley Pearson contributed eight points.
HTA then slipped by the host Kate Andrews 51-47 in a game that was harder to watch than “Christmas with the Kranks”.
“It was an ugly game,” Power said. “Kate Andrews scored approximately 70 per cent of their points from the foul line. The referees were calling everything and we weren’t able to adjust.”
However, a win is a win. The hard-working Kristin Ford was named the Knights’ player of the game thanks to her control of the boards. She finished with 11 rebounds. Monique Ouimet had 12 points and five steals while Riley Pearson also finished in double digits with 10 points.
The victory put the Knights in the consolation final. Some consolation. They came up against three-time 2A provincial champion Immanuel Christian from Lethbridge.
The Knights dropped an 83-66 decision in the consolation final.
“It was a four-point game early in the fourth quarter and we were down by 10 with two minutes to go and then they put it away,” Power said. “I was happy with how we played. We struggled on defence at the start but we adjusted. Our biggest problem was we couldn’t shoot. We were 29 out of 90 — we missed 61 shots.
“We came out of that game realizing that if we had shot like we had earlier in the year, we would have been right there against Immanuel Christian.”
Ouimet was the top scorer for HTA with 16 points and was named the player of the game for the Knights.
Power said the highlights of the tourney were Bass coming into her own as a point guard and the continued tenacious defence of Ford.
The Knights are off for the Christmas break, but they are back in action Jan. 5 against the upstart Oilfields Drillers in Black Diamond.
JV girls
HTA’s Junior Varsity Knights deserve their break over the holidays.
The Knights are 4-0 in Foothills Athletic Council play and has the full set of medals in regards to tournament play. They opened the year with a silver medal at their own tournament in November; they then captured a bronze at a tourney in Brooks and took home gold from a tournament in Ardrossan held Dec. 10-11.
“The gold in Ardrossan was especially telling of how much we have grown as a team defensively,” said Knights coach Scott Royce. “We beat a very good offensive team from Cochrane by 10 points in the semifinal. We then beat a very-talented team from Bev Facey (Sherwood Park) in the final.”
They may be Junior Varsity, but these Knights have some experience. There are five players returning from last year’s team including Nissa Ali, Kennedy Kilcommons, Ricki Thiessen, Kyra Lindenbach and Adina Sorowitz.
Royce said Ali creates plenty of offensive opportunities at point guard and Kilcommons is the Knights’ sharpshooter from the outside.
Lindenbach, Thiessen and Sorowitz provide tenacious defence and help clear the boards.
The Grade 10s on the team are Kirsten Hetchler, Sarah Walsh, Camille Anderson, Chelsea Sadler and Katie Bjurstrom.
The JV girls play in Medicine Hat after the Christmas break. They aren’t taking anything for granted despite being 12-2.
“We know the road ahead of us is a long and difficult one,” Royce said. “With the Comp and HCC (Heritage Christian) in our way, as well as strong teams in our zones, like Brooks, Cochrane and Chestermere.”
