Fatigue took its toll on the Knights boys’ basketball team during a provincial qualifier game this weekend.
The Holy Trinity Academy (HTA) Knights held a two-point edge with 15 minutes left during the game on Saturday when the toll of playing five games in four days got the best of them.
The Knights were on the verge of a major upset with a 52-49 lead over the Chestermere Lakers, the second ranked 3A school in the province, late in the third quarter before the favorites went on a 30-8 run to close out the game and beat HTA 84-60 in the 3A South Central Zone Senior Boys provincial berth tilt, March 10 at Olds College.
“We just never give up,” said Knights guard Zach Vant Erve. “I’m at a loss for words right now after that game, we fought so hard to just lose it at the end there. We did play really well though.”
HTA head coach Sam Aiello said he was impressed with the valiant effort his Knights put forth.
“It was a good zone tournament for us,” Aiello said. “We had to play five game since Wednesday and our guys just didn’t give up. I thought they played hard.”
HTA won its tournament opener 67-40 over Olds High on March 7 and lost its second game to the eventual zone champion Cochrane High 89-73 on March 8 forcing the Knights into the B bracket. HTA recovered nicely with convincing wins over Springbank, 65-42 on March 9, and Olds by an 87-43 margin on March 10. The taxing schedule proved to be too much for the Okotoks school to overcome.
“We were tired,” Aiello said. “We played a hard fought game (versus Olds) in the morning. It’s a tough road in our zone to come through the back door, very few teams are able to win it all through there.”
In the fourth quarter against Chestermere fatigue played a factor, as did the outside shooting of Lakers’ forward Jasdeep Gill who nailed four three pointers and distributed the ball effectively. Gill finished with 35 points.
“Our stamina started to drop a bit at the end there, but we kept pushing it and I knew we could stay in it,” said Knights’ forward Riley Moss. “They just started making their shots and they got their motion going and we couldn’t stop it.”
The Knights were able to contain Gill for the opening 30 minutes before he took control in the fourth.
“He’s a provincial player, he’s a legitimate good player,” Aiello said of Gill. “For the first three quarters we went into a 1-3-1 zone because we knew he likes to penetrate into the middle so we were there with that one guy in the middle.”
“Chestermere is the number two (3A school) in the province for a reason. They came out in the fourth quarter and started shooting the ball a lot better.”
The 24-point margin of victory overshadowed a resilient and tenacious performance from the Knights, who despite their height disadvantage, cleaned up on the glass throughout most of the game.
“They outsized us, but our guys did a good job of boxing out and rebounding,” Aiello said. “We fought hard, I’m happy with our guys. I’m proud of them.”
James LaGrange led the Knights with 22 points, while Ryan Hassler added 11. Moss, a force on the glass all game, said his rebounding resulted from pure grit.
“You’ve got to want the ball if you’re going to end up getting it,” Moss said.
The loss marked the end of an era for a number of key contributors to the Knights basketball program, including the likes of senior guards Vant Erve, James LaGrange, Ryan Hassler as well as Moss. The latter said the team showed character throughout the season.
“We never gave up and kept pushing to the end as a team and that’s really important,” Moss said.
Several of the Knights will play in the South Central all-star game March 21 at Foothills Composite High School.
