Skip to content

Oilfields Drillers golden on home court

Basketball: Black Diamond school undefeated in home tournament
drillersbball1235
Oilfields Driller Meg Grogan drives the lane versus the JT Foster Raiders during the Drillers Basketball Tournament on Dec. 6 in Black Diamond. The Drillers won the tournament. (Remy Greer/Western Wheel)

The Oilfields Drillers are living up to the Black and Gold billing in the early going.

Oilfields went undefeated including, posting two comeback victories to win its home senior girls basketball tournament on Saturday night in Black Diamond punctuated by a 57-49 victory over the Cochrane Cobras in the tournament final.

"That was a good match-up, they gave us a run for our money," said Drillers head coach James Holladay. "It was good defence on both ends and it was a solid game.

"We had the lead most of the game and then in the third they took it, it was that tie, back and forth lead change probably three or four times in the third and in the fourth we were able to hold off."

Nikita Palamar ensured the Drillers held off the visitors, hitting a pair of clutch shots from beyond the arc in the late stages. Jocelyn Holladay had a team-high 21 points in the gold medal game. 

Oilfields outlasted a tough Kate Andrews Pride team out of Coaldale by a 51-43 count on the semifinal.

"That was another good battle," the coach said. "We actually were down by about 13 at one point and came back to take that one."

Jocelyn Holladay again poured in 21 points, including four three-pointers while guard Amanda Burritt had six steals in both the semifinal and final, and contributed 25 points combined in the two contests.

Holladay credited Meg and Erin Grogan for their stellar defensive efforts in spelling each other off while guarding Kate Andrews' best player and doing the same in the final to neutralize Cochrane's top guard.

Defence is going to be a big emphasis for the team going forward.

"I think offensively we're clicking, we can put baskets in pretty much on any spot on the floor," coach Holladay said. "Our run game is great, very few teams can keep up with us on the fast-break, but we need to buckle down and play good solid defence to stifle the other teams.

"That's my focus for the next few weeks."

Oilfields opened the tournament by dispatching Nanton's JT Foster Raiders by a 73-37 count, a game in which the Drillers coaching staff was able to experiment with its lineup.

"That was an opportunity to work on a few things," the coach added. "Lots of kids got playing time, it was great."

Next up for the Drillers is a trip to Airdrie this weekend for the Bert Church Chargers tournament.


Remy Greer

About the Author: Remy Greer

Remy Greer is the assistant editor and sports reporter for westernwheel.ca and the Western Wheel newspaper. For story tips contact [email protected]
Read more



Comments

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks