In the opening round, held in Lethbridge, the 9th-seeded Red Deer Hunting Hills Lightning dispatched the 8th-seeded Lethbridge Collegiate Institute Clipper Queens 63-54. The Lightning broke to an 18-3 lead and extended their margin to 46-27 at the half off a raft of transition buckets. Lightning coach Sandre Goheen, a former Clipper Queen, told the Lethbridge Herald she was “happy with the victory. But I’m a little disappointed with the second half, because we played so well in the first half. We made it tough on ourselves.” Clipper Queens coach Cliff Walters said “Hunting Hills shot the lights out in the first half. Credit them. They didn’t miss very much and when they did miss they got the rebounds. We fought back in the second half to get back our pride. We lost this battle.” Leah Hunt led the Lightning with 23. Jody Potts added 8. Lindsay Evans led the Clipper Queens with 16. Lindsay Pike added 10. The Clipper Queens also included Paula Evans, Jan Leavitt, Jill Fletcher, Kristi Hansen, Janay Hamilton, Rachelle Brown. …………………………………………………… The 7th-seeded Sherwood Park Salisbury Sabres bombed the 10th-seeded Grand Prairie Totems 85-30 as Asha Forrester scored 18 and Lindsay Cragg 16. Ashlee Guise led the Totems with 9. The Totems also included Suzanne Rigler.
In the quarterfinals, held in Lethbridge, the defending champ and top-seeded Calgary Dr. E.P. Scarlett Lancers dumped the 9th-seeded Red Deer Hunting Hills Lightning 73-55 as second-yard guard Cristi Allan scored 16, Jen Elford 14, Bethany Honey 11 and Kelly Hanton 10. Jody Potts led the Lightning with 26. Leah Hunt added 13. “They gave us a good run. We seemed to have spurts and runs,” Lancers coach Bryce Tolley told the Calgary Herald. “We came out a little bit flat, but in the end, our pressure got to them. We went on enough good runs to put them away with eight or nine minutes to go.” Lightning coach Sandre Goheen told the Red Deer Advocate that “the girls were tired tonight. That hurt against their style of play (having played a game earlier in the day). … If we would have faced a team which a half-court offensive, it would have helped us. If we could play a team like that all season, it would make a big difference as well.” The Lancers led 35-24 at the half and opened the second frame with a 17-2 run. Potts said “we had a lapse. It’s something which hurt us all season. We haven’t played ranked teams all year and that hurt us. We’re just not used to that constant pressure all game.” The Lightning (coached by Sandre Goheen, assisted by Doug McKay) also included Jillian Mackenzie, Andi Crowe-Swords, Sherry Kuefler, Jessica Reid, Erin Shanchan, Jennifer Gulley, Kristy Martin.
The 2nd-seeded Calgary Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs defeated the 7th-seeded Sherwood Park Salisbury Sabres 76-37 as Laura Watson scored 16 and Katy Paterson 15. Asha Forrester led the Sabres with 12. The Sabres also included Lindsay Butler, Lindsay Cragg.
The 6th-seeded Edmonton Archbishop O’Leary Spartans defeated the 3rd-seeded Calgary William Aberhart Trojans 68-64 after rallying from a 42-26 halftime deficit. Christine Shewchuk led the Spartans with 36. Courtney Thon led the Trojans with 19. Sarah Maxwell added 12 and Laura Fleming 11. The Trojans (coached by Lynette LePan) also included Stephanie Maxwell, Chelsea Skolny.
In the last quarterfinal, the 4th-seeded Edmonton Harry Ainlay Titans dumped the 5th-seeded Medicine Hat Kwahommies 54-47 as Kelly Barrett scored 15 on 7-10 from the line, and Natalie Lutzak 10. Brandi Greenstein led the Kwahommies with 12. Adele Stimson added 11 and Lisa Moser 11. “We all came in focused,” Stimson told the Medicine Hat News. “But I guess they were the better team. The ball just didn’t fall for us. I think we were all nervous, but nobody really wanted to talk about it. We talked about coming in focused.” Kwahommies coach Boris Grisonich said “we didn’t play well. When you shoot the ball only once every four times down the floor, you’re not going to win. Our girls were scared to make the shots. We rushed shots, forced passes, then turned over the ball too much.” The Kwahommies turned the ball over 15 more times than the Titans. “That’s 15 more shots they had opportunity to take,” Grisonich said. “Our girls just lost their focus. We had a good game plan coming in — put enough pressure on (Ainlay point-guard Kelly Barrett) to make her give up the ball — and I think we accomplished that early. Give Ainlay credit, we lost to a good team. They have a good defence.” The Kwahommies also included Erlene Garryk, Jackie Milner, Carrie Clark, Kristie Tokunanga.
In the semis, the top-seeded Calgary Dr. E.P. Scarlett Lancers whipped the 4th-seeded Edmonton Harry Ainlay Titans 65-41. Cristi Allan, Kelly Haxton and Jen Elford each scored 13 to pace the Lancers. Kelly Barren led the Titans with 12. But coach Bryce Tolley said his troops could do better. “I think we’ve still got more. There’s always room for improvement. But win or lose, we’re very happy to be in the final again.”
In the other semi, the 3rd-seeded Edmonton Archbishop O’Leary Spartans stunned the 2nd-seeded Calgary Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs 49-41. The Bulldogs led 10-2 early and 26-15 at the half but the Spartans rallied to take their first lead at 28-27 with 13 minutes to play. Christine Shewchuk paced the Spartans with 24. Laura Watson led Churchill with 15. Katie Paterson added 14. “The things these kids do is they don’t quit,” Spartans coach Ron Kutney told the Lethbridge Herald. “Shewchuk is awesome, she’s got a big heart. I think the most important thing is she can play as part of a team.” The Bulldogs also included Katherine Adams.
In the bronze medal match, the 4th-seeded Edmonton Harry Ainlay Titans defeated the 2nd-seeded Calgary Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs 65-44. Ainlay led 29-20 at the half. Natalie Lutzak led the titans with 21. Lauren Jantzie added 15. Katy Paterson paced the Bulldogs with 22. The Bulldogs (coached by Rick Frey) also included Laura Watson, Marika Whitehead.
In the final, the top-seeded Calgary Dr. E.P. Scarlett Lancers defeated the 3rd-seeded Edmonton Archbishop O’Leary Spartans 67-54 to retain the provincial crown. “Not in our wildest dreams did we think we could win two in a row, pulling it out with all those grade 11s,” coach Bryce Tolley told the Lethbridge Herald. “I never thought at any time, we’d be in the final. But they really came together at the right time and they started playing defence. Our whole defensive philosophy came together in the last six or seven games. It’s like the saw the light at the end of the tunnel. … I thought we’d be here at the provincial tournament but that maybe we’d come in as a fourth seed I knew with our youth that we would be playing better by the end of the year but it’s really been just in the last seven games. We finally realized that defence does win championships.” Cristi Allan led the Lancers with 25. Kate Lalonde added 10. Christine Shewchuk paced the Spartans with 18. Mandy Squire added 12. “We knew that they were only really four deep without much of a bench, so our game plan, like always, was to pressure, move the ball quickly, and try to tire them out and send ‘em to the bench,” said Tolley. “We have to (run). You see the size difference, so that’s been our game all year. We press, we fast break the ball to make up for the difference in height. We have to get in a track meet to be successful.” It was a 15-15 draw early but the Spartans turnovers gave the Lancers a 35-26 lead at the half. “We knew they were very fast and very aggressive,” said Spartans coach Ron Kutney. “When we played them previously (an eight-point win), we were able to contain Cristi Allan hut today, as history will show, that was not possible. She played really well and pushed the tempo all game.” The Lancers opened the second half with a 19-3 while containing star Spartans forward Christine Shewchuk. “We knew we had to get up high because they’ve come back in every game they played in the tournament,” said Allan. “We wanted to just keep going and going and make sure they didn’t have a chance to come back on us.” The Spartans rallied no closer than 13. The Lancers finished (29-6) on the season.
The bronze medalist Harry Ainlay Titans: Kelly Barrett; Kelly Schwindt; Natalie Lutzak; Lauren Jantzie; coach John Huot
The silver medalist Edmonton Archbishop O’Leary Spartans: Christine Shewchuk; Jacqueline Downing; Mandy Squire; coach Ron Kutney
The gold medalist Calgary Dr. E.P. Scarlett Lancers: Laura Jablonski; Cristi Allan; Misty Wilson; Jen Elford; Bethany Honey; Kelly Haxton; Katherine Fortier; Kelly Lalonde; Meg Merrill; Kate Lalonde; coach Bryce Tolley