A rivalry match nearly three years in the making provided much more than consolation.
The Holy Trinity Academy Knights held off a late surge from the Foothills Falcons to win the 25thannual Knights Classic consolation final by an 89-81 count in overtime on Jan. 15 in the first meeting between the Okotoks schools since the 2019 zones.
“We haven’t had the opportunity to play them now in a couple of years because of COVID and stuff,” said Knights head coach Sam Aiello. “And I think the fans really enjoyed the rivalry, just watching that game and the kids played to that level as well, played to that crowd.
“And for it to go to overtime gave it that much more flair. It was fun to be a part of.”
With the teams knotted at 79-79 following four quarters, the five minute overtime saw the Knights create second and third opportunities by getting on the boards and forcing turnovers.
“Our message was really simple,” Aiello said. “We said ‘We need to rebound the basketball and the team that makes the least amount of turnovers here will win this game.’
“That kind of held true, we were able to rebound and near the end we were a little more cautious with the ball and didn’t make any crazy passes or turn it over and used the shotclock a bit when we got ahead there.”
Foothills rallied in the late stages of the fourth-quarter to stave off a four-point deficit in the final two minutes before running out of steam in overtime.
“It was a close game, exciting and the fans liked it,” said Falcons head coach Amron Gwilliam. “I thought we made too many mistakes, we had lots of turnovers and simple mistakes and if we just clean that up it might have been a bit of a different outcome.
“But we had lots of guys step up and play really well.”
Standouts for the head coach included post Beynon Gwilliam for his efforts on the defensive end and rebounding with Ben Stephan, the team’s tournament MVP, controlling the pace of the game before fouling out in overtime.
“(Ben’s) been playing well for us and that kind of hurt us,” Gwilliam said. “He’s been playing point-guard a lot for us so that took us a bit out of our rhythm and offensive execution.
“But total credit to HTA. They went after the glass like crazy and out-executed us.”
Hunter Cobb was also listed for his willingness to take it to the basket with Evan Fitzner and Koby Bergen both hit big shots in the final minutes of regulation to help force the game into overtime.
“Overall it wasn’t bad,” the coach added. “We’ve had a lot of kids sick and haven’t been able to practise a lot with our full squad lately, it was the kids who’ve been at practice and been able to go that’s who ended up playing a lot.
“We’re hoping to get everybody back healthy and back in and get in all eleven guys instead of just six or seven.”
Three-point shooting played a large role in the fifth-place match with both teams finding their range beyond the arc and going back-and-forth with momentum swinging three-point shots.
The Knights’ Marcus Abrenica and Lucas Barlow were big contributors from three with Foothills getting a number of baskets from range from the likes of Gwilliam, Fitzner and Tyler Olson.
“These kids have all played against each other through junior high, they know each other they know their tendencies and for them it’s even more of a big deal if they get to one-up a buddy from the other school just for a game,” Aiello said.
“But we can turn around and play them again in a couple weeks and it could be a totally different story. We got the upper advantage and who knows what will happen in the next one.”
Knights post Erik Bjorge was named tournament MVP for the squad after putting in a solid shift with hustle plays and rebounding all weekend.
“He really did that for us all weekend, he was a workhorse, he grabbed a ton of rebounds for us when we needed them,” Aiello said. “Those first two games we played really strong competition, but he was that steady guy all weekend.”
The Knights were pooled alongside Calgary’s All Saints and Western and dropped their round-robin matches 82-59 and 79-57, respectively.
“I wanted to test our team to see where are we in the top 10 or 15 in the province,” Aiello said. “I think what we took from the weekend is we’re not right there yet, but we still think we’re close. We’re in the mix and if our inexperience can change and we can get in more of those types of games maybe we can creep up into that spot.”
Foothills took a couple narrow defeats in Pool B, losing to St. Francis 78-69 and just coming up short in a 68-65 defeat to Joane Cardinal-Schubert.
“It was back-and-forth, up and down and (JCS) just executed better than us at the end of the game,” Gwilliam said.
It could be a short wait for the Okotoks teams to meet again.
The Knights and Falcons are slated to play in exhibition play as part of a three-team set with the visiting Magrath, one of the top 4A teams in the province on the Jan. 28-29 weekend.
For the Jan. 21-22 weekend, both teams will get a shot at Raymond in both girls and boys basketball as the Comets play at HTA on Jan. 21 and at Foothills on Jan. 22.
