Okotoks high school basketball’s positive trend is not slowing down with league playoffs and zones on the horizon.
All three Okotoks squads at the Notre Dame Invitational took home silverware with the Foothills Falcons senior boys and girls earning silver and the Holy Trinity Academy Knights grinding out the consolation title at the Calgary high school on Feb. 24-25.
The old axiom every point matters was reinforced in the boys bracket.
A three-way tie for first place in Pool C saw the Falcons, host Notre Dame and Bishop O’Byrne knotted up with 1-1 records with the tiebreaker coming down to point differential.
“All really good teams and close games throughout the tournament and that’s one of the problems when you do the draw like they do with six teams and two pools of three,” said Falcons boys head coach Amron Gwilliam.
Following an opening 70-66 loss to Bishop O’Byrne, Foothills knew it had to defeat the host team by at least four points to get to the gold medal game.
Mission accomplished, with a bit of breathing room as Foothills held on for a 72-62 win.
“We knew (Notre Dame) was going to be a really tough team and more than anything we wanted to bounce back and play better, we didn’t play well at all in the first game, we were just flat,” the coach added. “Even though we only had a two-hour break, our guys responded and played probably one of our better games in terms of effort, defence and overall team play.
“As we had a bit of a lead at the end, we just reiterated we need every point we can get here, we can’t just let them get an easy bucket or two here.”
In the tournament final, Foothills was downed 90-86 by Father Lacombe in a seesaw gold medal match.
“They’re a super athletic team and we started really well, our guys were hitting everything and they weren’t hitting much and we knew that wasn’t going to last the whole game,” Gwilliam said.
“We had it to within two with a minute left and just couldn’t make the shot when we needed to.”
Four Falcons hit double digits led by Bergen Hall’s 19 points, along with Van Kerrison’s 16, Tyler Olson’s 15 and Evan Fitzner’s 11.
Kerrison was named the tournament all-star with Olson, Kerrison and Cache Perrett taking individual player of the game honours on the weekend.
“We had different guys stepping up in different games and it’s nice to see,” Gwilliam said. “I think we have a lot of depth on our team.”
The Falcons girls, the 10th ranked team at the 4A level, had another impressive silver finish in tournament play.
Foothills scored a 76-43 win over Ernest Manning and overpowered Catholic Central 95-53 to finish on top in Pool B.
A championship game versus Notre Dame, the No. 9 ranked squad, saw the hosts take a 65-48 win.
For the Knights, the Invitational was an opportunity to vault into league playoffs on a high note with a strong finish to their tournament play this season.
HTA knocked off Catholic Central 49-45 in the consolation final, avenging a loss in tournament play earlier in the month to the Lethbridge team.
“We knew who their threats were and we were able to capitalize on our knowledge,” said Knights girls head coach Andrew Gustafson. “At key moments in the game we came up with some big plays.”
Ava Kaack had 16 points in the final, including consecutive three-pointers down the stretch, Jillian Bonertz was a defensive dynamo with 10 blocks while point guard Sadie Bull had 10 steals, Eva Gustafson had seven steals and Julianno Aiello added 10 points.
“(Bull), she’s a Grade 12 and in her last high school tournament she pulled off a tournament all-star award,” the coach added.
The Knights dropped the first two games of the competition to a pair of top-10 ranked teams in Lindsay Thurber and Notre Dame.
Grade 10 Leah Kotze was HTA’s player of the game with nine steals against Thurber. Fellow rookie Eva Gustafson had a dynamic game versus the hosts with 17 points, 11 rebounds and seven steals.
For Gustafson, there were highlights to be gleaned from taking on such strong opposition.
“In the last 30 days we’ve had the opportunity to play seven of the top 15 teams in the province,” he said. “Our team is not getting wins against those teams this year, but man does that help us grow for the future.
“We’re a young team and it helps those girls see what the top level is and where they have to get to.”
This weekend, HTA hosts the Foothills Athletic Council championships at both the senior and junior varsity levels. HTA will face either Strathmore or Highwood in the senior girls final.
The quadruple-header gets underway with the senior finals slated to begin at 1:30 and 3:15 p.m.
The following week, both sets of Falcons and Knights squads will be in Chestermere for the 4A South Central Zone Championship.
