North and South will finally meet when the Holy Trinity Academy Knights and Foothills Falcons senior boys teams play on Thursday in what could be for a South Central zone banner.
And a coach who has played — and lost — to both teams said fans are in for a thriller.
"They have very different styles,” said St. Mary’s Saints coach Vince Marra. “Two very good teams that are well coached.”
The Knights go into the 4A South Central tournament ranked No. 10 provincially while the Falcons have an honourable mention (No. 13).
The Saints dropped an 84-81 decision to the Knights prior to Christmas. More recently, the Falcons downed St. Mary's 92-60 in early February at the Western Canada Redhawks tournament.
“We played way better against HTA than we did against Foothills Comp – we don’t match up as well (against Foothills),” Marra said. “Like HTA, we are big as well, we are probably bigger than they are.
“We were able to match up better defensively against them. It was a very close game.”
He said the Saints had more trouble with the Falcons in February.
“They are very fast-paced, run-and-gun and they shoot the ball very well – they must have had 18 or 19 threes on us,” Marra said. “It was like they took turns.”
He said while he expected the threes from the likes of sharp-shooters Cam Boriskewich and Cley Perrett, when one of the Falcons big players, Preston Layton, starting canning them from beyond the arc, it shook things up.
“He was probably the least guy I expected to hit some threes against our big guys and that changed the game as well,” Marra said.
That doesn’t mean Marra is picking Foothills to win.
“Holy Trinity ran five guys at a time and then they subbed five guys at a time — they are deeper than Foothills it seems to me,” Marra said. “They always had fresh guys against us and they had a lot of 6’3, 6’4, 6’5 guys who are long on the defensive side.
“On the half-court, they do a lot of screen and rolls. On offence they try to hammer the ball at you on the half-court.
“They were very organized and very deep when we played them.”
The Knights have five players over 6-foot-4, Elias Ralph, Caelan Kiejko, Mason Black and Tobias Krueger.
The 6-foot-6 Black has been a dominant force under the glass all year for the Knights.
Marra said one thing both teams share is solid coaching with the Knights Sam Aiello and the Falcons Amron Gwilliam, respectively.
As for the definitive winners, those will be the fans who have a chance to see a potential classic on March 12 at HTA.
“If Foothills shoots like they did against us… they have to shoot that well to beat HTA,” Marra said. “In the end, I think it is the three-point shooting, can HTA stop the three-point shooting.
“HTA can’t make mistakes and they have to control the half-court.”
“It will be interesting how they match up that way.”
Thanks to both teams’ provincial rankings, the top two boys teams in this week’s South Central zone tournament will advance to the provincial championships March 19-21 in Lethbridge.
Following is the schedule for 4A South Central zone high school basketball championships at Holy Trinity Academy.
March 10 — HTA Knights vs. Chestermere Lakers (girls at 5:30 p.m., boys at 7:15 p.m.)
March 11 — Foothills Falcons vs. Chestermere Lakers (girls at 5:30 p.m., boys at 7:15 p.m.)
March 12 — Foothills Falcons vs. HTA Knights (girls at 5:30 p.m., boys at 7:15 p.m. — these are gold medal games if both teams are 1-0.)
If there is a three-way tie at 1-1 after round robin the girls final would be at noon and the boys final at 2 p.m. on March 14.
