Hard work is paying early dividends for the Holy Trinity Academy Knights.
The HTA senior boys basketball squad took home its first tournament title in its second competition of the season, outlasting a tough field of competitors at Calgary’s St. Francis Browns invitational on Dec. 13-14.
“Our guys worked super hard this weekend,” said Knights head coach Sam Aiello. “We have a lot of new kids this year and they’re growing week by week here and on the weekend, it worked out for us.”
The Knights have one returning starter from last year’s team that made its way to the 4A provincials in Ben Gutek along with a number of incumbents growing into new roles, including twin brother Elijah and Noah Barlow and Charlie Humphries.
“It’s been a lot of hard work in practice just repping all of our stuff and getting guys into our system and understanding how things work,” the coach added. “But the guys have been really positive with each other going through all of that.”
HTA bested the Bishop O’Byrne Bobcats 69-53 in the final, delivered a 69-66 result over the Browns in the semifinal and opened the tournament with an 88-55 win over Father Lacombe.
Noah Barlow was named the Tournament MVP, adjusting to more of interior role and thriving with 21- and 19-rebound games along with leading the Knights in scoring with 23.3 points per game.
Elijah Barlow, at point guard, had 15 points, nine rebounds and five assists in the final.
“I think they just gained a lot of confidence from this weekend,” Aiello said. “They just know that to play at that level of basketball, you’ve got to come prepared and focused every time.
“If you ever have any of those lapses, at this level it will hurt you and I think they saw that, and for most of the weekend were dialed in.”
In Lethbridge, the Knights senior girls added to their tournament haul with a silver medal at the L.C.I. Green and Gold.
The Knights overpowered St. Mary’s 74-51 and edged out Swift Current Composite 80-77 to get to the tournament final against the host Rams. L.C.I. took the title by a 23-point margin.
HTA Grade 10 guard Natalie Murray earned the Hustle and Heart Award with Grade 11 forward Kateri Krueger named a Tournament All-Star.
This week, the Knights are home to the Raymond Comets for a double-header on Tuesday and on Thursday the girls play William Aberhart followed by the boys match versus Chestermere.
