Making the extra play ensured the Knights went the distance at their second taste of tournament action.
The Holy Trinity Academy Knights saw six players register double digit points with a dynamic offensive attack vaulting the senior boys basketball squad to a gold medal at the Bert Church Invitational, Dec. 16-17 in Airdrie.
“We talked about that after our last game, spreading the wealth around makes us more difficult to play,” said head coach Sam Aiello. “If we have a bunch of guys who can score, it just makes us that little bit more difficult.
“We did a really good job of passing the ball and a lot of times made that extra pass that got somebody a little bit more free than maybe the person who had the ball.”
In the opener, the Knights scratched and clawed for a 67-56 triumph over the Bow Valley Bobcats.
Lucas Barlow had a team-best 15 points, Xavier Krueger added 14 points and 17 rebounds, with Sam Friesen registering 12 points and seven boards.
“We had a real tough time with them and were losing that game at halftime,” Aiello said. “And in the second half, we made some adjustments and went to a 2-3 zone, we couldn’t defend them man-for-man, their two guards and the zone helped us.
“It was still a close game the whole way.”
In the semifinal, the Knights were able to control the Croxford Cavaliers throughout to score a 72-54 result.
Krueger had a game high 19 points and 13 rebounds with Sloan adding 12 points and Raymond Gilbert pouring in 11.
“They’re a good team, they’re really well coached and have some good players, but we just really played well,” the coach added. “We shot the ball well, we played really good defence and really controlled the tempo of that game from start to finish.”
The invitational final pitted a pair of familiar foes from the Foothills Athletic Council with the Knights taking on the Strathmore Spartans with tournament gold on the line.
The championship went down to the wire with the combatants knotted 58-58 through three quarters but HTA’s 20-11 fourth quarter vaulted the Knights to a 78-69 result.
“It was a typical Strathmore and Holy Trinity game, similar to what we’ve done with them over the last three or four years,” Aiello said with a laugh. “Just another physical game, both teams played really good defence.
“The difference down the stretch was we just made a couple really big shots in the fourth quarter that we really needed. It was really not until that last four minutes where it was a six-, seven-point game for us and we held onto that margin.”
Krueger had a monster performance with 15 points, 14 rebounds, seven assists and four blocks en route to championship game MVP honours. Barlow, Sloan and Owen Vanin each had 14 points.
Barlow, a Grade 11 point guard, took home tournament MVP nod for his consistent contributions all weekend.
“Lucas does what he has to for us, he brings the ball up for us and distributes to who needs it and in that final game same thing with that steadiness,” Aiello said. “We were actually down at one point in the third quarter, we ran back-to-back out of bound plays and we got three-point looks out of both of them and (Lucas) hit both of those.
“That really changed the momentum and got us back to even.”
This week, the Knights were slated to be home to the Raymond Comets on Dec. 21 as part of a double-header with the senior girls teams, but the games have been cancelled due to the cold snap and the travel challenge that presented to the visitors.
