In the opening round, held in Chestermere: …………………………………………………… The 10th-seeded Chestermere Lady Lakers knocked off the 7th-seeded Lloydminster Holy Rosary Raiders 61-51. The Raiders included Kelsey Appleton, Mary Cavanagh, Erin Cunningham, Alex Edwards, Nicole Gagnon, Layne Garner, Amanda Halbach and Brittni Kehler. …………………………………………………… The 6th-seeded Airdrie George McDougall Mustangs clubbed the 11th-seeded Peace Wapiti Academy Titans 85-15. The Titans included Tatum Auclair, Kelly Boyd-O’Hallahan, Loretta Brown, Courtney Mayne, Amy Morrison, Sarah Odenbauch, Bryanne Patterson, Tanis Radoux and Kelly Warkentin. …………………………………………………… The 5th-seeded Okotoks Holy Trinity Academy Knights crushed the 12th-seeded Calgary Queen Elizabeth Knights 65-33. The Knights included Brianna Adamson, Harleen Bhullar, Megan Prudhomme, Laura Sproule, Sydney Toutant, Sarah Unrush and Alyssa Walthers. …………………………………………………… The 8th-seeded Camrose Composite Trojans dusted the 9th-seeded Morinville Lady Wolves 86-39. Rebecca Dubord paced the Wolves with 11. Brittany Wilson added 10. The Lady Wolves included Kayli Avveduti, Kaitlyn Dryden, Rebecca Dubord, Emma Keane, Amanda Kluthe, Katrina Lessard, Carrie Mossey, Meagan Vokurka, Kathryn West and Brittany Wilson.
In the quarterfinals, the top-seeded Medicine Hat Monsignor McCoy Colts clipped the 8th-seeded Camrose Composite Trojans 70-53 as Cierra Matsalla scored 14, Dakota Schacher 14, along with 5 steals, and Mikayala Fritzke 10, while Marni MacKay nabbed 13 boards. The Trojans included Alyssa Clarkson, Karly Johnson-Renman, Emilie Kerr, Katelyn Kjos, Nicole Laskosky, Kristen Lyster, Micki Malish, Tiffany Osmond, Christie Pilger, Jordyn Reixinger, Skylar Syrnyk and Olivia Trueman.
The 5th-seeded Okotoks Holy Trinity Academy Knights nipped the 4th-seeded Edmonton Christian Lions 76-74. The Lions included Melissa Bird, Kristy Bootsma, Chelsea Dost, Emerey Elzen, Rachel Gleddie, Zoe Rozema, Kate Rozendaal, Meaghan Rozendaal, Samantha Schuring, Jamie Stobart, Jenna VandenBoogard and Cassie Visscher.
The 2nd-seeded St. Albert Catholic Skyhawks blasted the 10th-seeded Chestermere Lady Lakers 86-49. The Lakers included Jaimie Blake, Katie Cairns, Brittany Cavers, Rachel Cooke, Brady Dubetz, Tanya Ewald, Mindy Mai, Richelle Rawlyk, Yasmene Saghir, Amber Smith, Megan Tanner and Karen Tran.
In the last quarterfinal, the 6th-seeded host Airdrie George McDougall Mustangs stunned the 3rd-seeded Magrath Pandas 70-61. Natasha Gingerysty hit a trio of treys with four minutes to play to break open a tie game. “Playing Magrath in front of the school here was amazing,” said Mustangs coach Joe McLaughlin. “It was so loud. The girls celebrated that one like they won a championship.” Forward Melynda Van der borgh called it “our best game of the season. Everything worked out great. Our passing, dribbling, how we worked the ball, that’s how we won. Everyone stepped it up a notch.” The Pandas included Teina Lowry, Kim Bogdan, Brooklyn Broadhead, Celine Christensen, Ladan Farah, Jenelle Gieske, Quincee Hoy, tori Juhasz, Erica McMahon, Jamie Taylor and Jasmine Taylor.
In the semis, the 2nd-seeded St. Albert Catholic Skyhawks whipped the 6th-seeded Airdrie George McDougall Mustangs 66-47. “They are a really strong team,” said Mustangs coach Joe McLaughlin. “They didn’t have the legs in the second half. They were so tired at the end of that game, but they understood they lost to a really good team. Within no time they were getting ready to win bronze. They had a whole new focus.”
In the other semi, the top-seeded Medicine Hat Monsignor McCoy Colts dispatched the 5th-seeded Okotoks Holy Trinity Academy Knights 79-68. Colts coach Janice Laing told the Medicine Hat News that her starters “were off-kilter a
little bit. Our bench, our Grade 10s were stellar.” With Colt star Cierra Matsalla picking up three quick fouls, the Knights built a 14-10 lead early. “They came with nothing to lose,” said Laing. But Marni MacKay tossed 13, along with 9 boards and Kennedy Werre 12 as the Colts pulled out the win.
In the bronze medal match, the 6th-seeded Airdrie George McDougall Mustangs dumped the 5th-seeded Okotoks Holy Trinity Academy Knights 69-58. A pair of steals from senior guard Morgan Schultz and a handful of quick baskets from Melynda Van der Borgh in the fourth quarter led the Mustangs to the win, while avenging a loss to the Knights in the south central zone final. “Coaches say sometimes it’s better to win the bronze than lose for silver,” said Mustangs coach Joe McLaughlin. “The girls are so excited, they had such a great season. You think teams usually have a superstar here and there but this was a total team effort. We had so many interchangeable parts on the team, and they were ready all the time.” Captain Morgan Schultz said the squad’s 30-4 record and bronze medal capped a great senior season. “Working our way up like that is a huge accomplishment and good note to end my high school career. I can’t remember the last time George McDougall medaled in provincials. It was an honour to be captain to this team.” Melynda Van der Borgh paced the Mustangs with 30. Knights coach Ken Power said his troops were sluggish after a semi-final loss. “That might have taken a lot out of us, but give credit to George Mac, they lost a semifinal game too.” Mustangs forward Melynda Vande Borgh said “we pressed them a little bit more this time and we were able to create a lot of turnovers.” Vanderborgh scored 30. The Mustangs led 18-12, 27-23 and 48-40 at the quarters. The Knights were able to cut the lead to 54-51 with five minutes left in the game when Riley Pearson scored on a lay-up but got no closer. Knights Bethany Hartman said they had problems with the Mustangs’ press. “I think we panicked when they were pressing us. “We were then just throwing bad passes and gave up a lot of layups.” Hartman’s teammate Monique Ouimet agreed. “When we executed, we broke their press just fine,” she said. “When we didn’t set up though, we really struggled.” Power said his team might have ran out of gas. Kylie Pozniak scored 11 to lead the Knights. Riley Pearson added 10. The Knights also included Kalise Barwich, Melissa Bass, Emma Bibault, Ailish Deringer, Anya Farmer, Kristin Ford, Bethany Hartman, Ryan Kennedy and Monique Ouimet.
In the final, the 2nd-seeded St. Albert Catholic Skyhawks defeated the top-seeded Medicine Hat Monsignor McCoy Colts 74-63 to capture their second consecutive provincial title. “It gets better each time. Everybody is pretty excited about winning back to back titles,” said Kendall Lydon told the St. Albert Herald. “We just wanted it super bad. It was our last game so we wanted to give it everything we had. We knew how sweet it would feel to win again.” Shelby Hucul said “last year was amazing but this year was just as great, too. Last year we weren’t really expecting anything. We just worked extremely hard all year and we managed to pull it off at the end. This year it was kind of the same thing, especially working hard and we definitely did that all year.” Skyhawks coach John Dedrick said this year’s championship was extra special. “We were the defending champs from last year and we were premier champs, too, so we had a higher level of expectation and a target on us throughout the course of the year. We also lost six pretty important players from last year so we had to have other girls really step up and kind of fill the void and they did. I’m very proud of the way they performed.” The Skyhawks also avenged a midseason tournament loss to the Colts. “We were all pretty pissed about the first time we lost to them so we wanted to beat them even more than any other team,” Lydon said. Haley England added that “there was some nervous energy but it was more like excitement. Not only did we get to where we wanted to be, but we had the opportunity to play against them again because we felt we didn’t do as good as we could’ve the first time.” The Skyhawks led 21-19 after the first quarter. “We played our game instead of playing to their level of ball,” Hucul said. “We came out more aggressive than when we played them before. We really pushed the ball and we worked really hard, too.” Hayley Warmington converted a steal into a layup and added three foul shots during a 10-2 run as the Skyhawks extended the lead to 31-21. Warmington “played outstanding defence and took the ball to the hole really hard. That was huge for us,” Dedrick said. St. Albert led by six at halftime as Lydon hit four treys. England fed Warmington for a trey to make it 49-38 midway through the third quarter and then the Skyhawks took total command on consecutive field goals by Hucul and a bucket by England, forcing the Colts to call a time out with 3:17 on the clock. Hucul hit a jumper and then stole the ball for a transition layup and then England up for a bucket to give St. Albert a 16-point lead. “In the third quarter we started getting a few baskets in a row and we got a lot of stops on defence and that was the turning point,” said Lydon, who nailed a trey at the buzzer to widen the gap to 63-45. “All game we played great defence. Our help defence was a lot better than it had been before.” England, who played with Morinville in the 2010 provincials, added that “during the whole year the third quarter had been the thing that we struggled with the most but we came out and made a statement. … We really controlled the boards against them, even though they’re a lot bigger than we are.” In the final quarter, Lydon went 4-for-8 from the charity stripe and added a bucket as the Skyhawks coasted to the win. “We definitely played like a team the whole game. We were helping each other a lot,” Hucul said. Dedrick said there were a number of difference-makers. “We got our normal hard-nose efforts from Katie Burak and Paige Knull. They did what they did all year. We played Amber [Easthope] in limited minutes but when she was on the floor, she was very productive. She didn’t throw the ball away, had a couple of steals and drew a charge [in the fourth quarter, and the Skyhawks ahead by 13]. It was the first charge she had ever taken for us because she jumps so high to try and block everything. … Shelby being healthy was a huge factor. Number four [Cierra Matsalla] for them dominated the game when we lost to them in Wetaskiwin. Shelby’s job was basically to try and contain her and make her work extremely hard and she did an awesome job of that. She just didn’t get the same types of looks and the same types of runs at the basket that she got in Wetaskiwin when Shelby wasn’t healthy. They were really keying on Zoe [Downing] too, because Zoe had shot the ball pretty well in Wetaskiwin. Zoe didn’t panic and didn’t force a lot of shots and that opened it up big time for Kendall. She was very dominating in terms of controlling the flow of the game and making sure people got the ball in the right spots. … They often had number four, their best defender, on Zoe, which obviously worked out in our favour as well.” Dedrick also said the back-to-back titles and seven consecutive provincial tournament appearances, indicates that the Skyhawks “are becoming a little bit of a model of consistency in terms of how our program is maintaining its level of competitiveness and we’re very proud of that.” Kendall Lydon paced the Skyhawks with 29, including five from beyond the arc. Haley England added 12, Hayley Warmington, a Paul Kane transfer, added 11. Colts coach Janice Laing told the Medicine Hat News that “I’m proud of my kids. After last year, if
you had told me we’d be where we were, I’d have said no. But they played hard, one through 10. We kept forgetting to extend past that three-point line, they shoot that ball so well we have to. We had a bit of a panic attack, recovered
well but 18 points is too much to go down. We got caught standing at times. They played great.”
The bronze medalist Airdrie George McDougall Mustangs: Rosie Addo; Tory Barber; Annissa Coish; Quinn Diaz; Naasha Gingerysty; Kylie Lebedeff; Shae Lewis; Haley Rolfson; Morgan Schultz; Melynda Van der Borgh; Tori Zabel; coach Joe McLaughlin; assistant Ashley Van der Borgh
The silver medalist Monsignor McCoy Colts: Miranda DeSouza; Alexandra Dooley; Mikayla Fritzke; Victoria King; Marni MacKay; Cierra Matsalla; Caitlyn Rookes; Courtney Rozdeba; Dakota Schacher; Kennedy Were; coach Janice Laing
The gold medalist St. Albert Catholic Skyhawks: Katie Burak; Petra Catarig; Zoe Downing; Amber Easthope; Haley England; Stephanie Gartner; Shelby Hucul; Paige Knull; Kendall Lydon; Taylor Mildenberger; Hayley Warmington; coach John Dedrick; assistant Paige Gaudreau