A change was as good as a rest for the Knights on the weekend.
Led by defensive adjustments, the Holy Trinity Academy Knights senior boys corralled the Scott Doan Memorial Basketball Tournament title at Hunting Hills in Red Deer on Dec. 9.
“It was really only our second, third and fourth games of the year,” said Knights boys head coach Sam Aiello. “It was really good for that, saying, ‘Let’s get everybody some playing time and try to figure out where our weaknesses are, where are strengths are and that’s really what the weekend was about and it worked out.”
Aiello said one of the themes of the weekend was slow starts offensively with the defence more than picking up the slack, particularly when the zone defence was instituted.
The Knights struck lightning in downing the host Hunting Hills to kick off the competition with Xavier Krueger and Lucas Barlow scoring a team-high 15 points along with double-digit scoring from Ben Gutek and Jack Gilbert.
In the semifinal, HTA knocked off Salisbury 74-54 with guard Owen Vanin knocking in a game-high 18 points.
“We made a really good adjustment at halftime,” Aiello said. “We were down, it was about a seven, eight-point game and we changed our defensive look in the second half and went into a zone defence and they just had a really tough time with it.
“We got a lot of tips and turnovers out of it and offensively, all of a sudden we started scoring better and took the lead.”
It was a similar script in the tournament final as HTA gathered steam to derail Edmonton’s M.E. LaZerte 66-40. Krueger had 24 points to lead the Knights.
“It’s still early in the season, but it just gives us some confidence,” Aiello said. “Especially for a lot of the new kids, knowing that they can play at this level and were chosen on this team for a reason.”
The Knights boast five seniors in Krueger, Barlow, Vanin, Gilbert and Chris Peloso along with Grade 11s Nico Kotze, Charlie Humphries, Gavin Speers, Reece MacDougall and Ben Gutek. The Grade 10 trio includes twin brothers Elijah and Noah Barlow and Bowen Gottselig.
“It’s going to be tougher competition as the season goes on, but for getting their feet wet, it was a good start,” Aiello said.
In Lethbridge, the HTA Knights senior girls earned their second straight second place finish to start the season as finalists at Catholic Central’s Cal O’Brien Classic.
HTA downed Father Lacombe and overpowered the McCoy Colts en route to the tournament final. In the gold medal game, Stirling got past the Knights.
At the Cardston Cougars Classic, the Foothills Falcons senior teams polished off another strong weekend.
The Falcons boys made it to the final amidst a tough field, where they were held off by the high-octane Raymond Comets by a 98-76 score.
Foothills outlasted the Strathmore Spartans 87-72 in its opener and then soared past the host Cougars 87-67 in the semifinal.
The Falcons girls brought home the consolation title from Cardston.
After a tight 76-69 loss to Western Canada in the first fixture, the Falcons rallied to soundly defeat the Notre Dame Pride 65-38. In the consolation final, Foothills overpowered Calgary’s Centennial High by a 70-31 margin.
The attention shifts from tournament to exhibition action on Tuesday.
The Knights host the Falcons for a double-header, the girls game tipping off at 5:30 p.m. followed by the boys at 7:15 p.m. on Dec. 12 at HTA.
HTA, Foothills and Strathmore are playing in an exhibition league this season, opting out of the regular Foothills Athletic Council schedule that features the Strathcona-Tweedsmuir Spartans, Oilfields Drillers, Highwood Mustangs, Notre Dame Collegiate Timberwolves and Holy Cross Collegiate Hawks.
