The top of the podium is getting to be a familiar vantage point for the Knights.
The Holy Trinity Academy Knights senior girls won their second basketball tournament in as many weeks backed by a determined defensive effort in striking gold at the Cougar-Falcon Classic in Red Deer.
“Our takeaway right now is that our team is really cohesive, they’re gelling well,” said Knights co-head coach Andrew Gustafson. “They’re gritty, they work hard, they play for each other and we’re a tough team to score on.
“That defence is really dialed in.”
For the second tournament in a row, the Knights did not allow a team to hit the 50-point plateau with decisive wins over Hunting Hills (102-27) and Chestermere (73-41).
That set the table for one of its closest games of the season, a 59-48 grind it out victory over a deep Henry Wisewood squad.
“We don’t expect to have big 50-point wins throughout the entire season, we don’t expect to go undefeated, we need to be squeezed and feel that pressure,” Gustafson said. “And we need to play against teams that have superstar players, so we have the capacity to be able to deal with that as a team and take that player out of the equation and play our own game.”
Paige Vanegmond, who scored 17 points in the opener, Leah Kotze, a 20-point scorer against Chestermere, and Paige McNichol, who added nine points and timely offence against Wisewood, were named HTA’s player of the games in Red Deer.
“I think everybody has had an opportunity to shine at some point this season,” the coach added.
The Knights senior boys won the consolation title in their opening tournament at Calgary’s Winston Churchill.
HTA bounced back from a 90-84 loss to All Saints to edge the Paul Kane 88-61 and triumph over Ernest Manning by a 77-64 count.
“It was a feel out process,” said Knights head coach Sam Aiello. “That was our first tournament of the year and we’re trying to figure it out still, figure out who we are. We gave guys minutes as much as we could for everybody.
“I was pleasantly surprised, our guys worked really hard and we’re definitely a good shooting team, but we still have lots to work on.”
Offensively, the Knights had strong performances all weekend.
Charlie Humphries had 29- and 22-point games, guard Noah Barlow had three double-doubles highlighted by a 19-point, 18-rebound performance in the consolation final while Ben Gutek also soared with a 25-point effort against All Saints.
“We can score when we need to,” Aiello said. “I just think we need to clean up a few things on the defensive end, our total team defence and some of our systems. We have lots of newer players this year so it will just take some time.”
In Medicine Hat, the Foothills Falcons continued their strong start to the campaign with two more medals at the Hat High Green and White Invitational.
The Falcons girls won the silver medal for the second straight weekend.
The Comp ruled over Saskatchewan’s Campbell Collegiate 85-39, outlasted the host Hawks 69-48 and lost to the final 71-55 to the L.C.I. Rams. Grade 12 guard Ashleigh Baker was the team's tournament all-star.
The Falcons boys added a bronze medal to their haul. The Comp opened in fine form by knocking off Catholic Central 88-45 and dropped a seesaw 89-96 thriller to the Western Canada Redhawks.
“The loss fueled an offensive and defensive fire that ignited an outstanding start to the bronze medal game,” said Falcons head coach Amron Gwilliam. “The Falcons came out on fire.”
In the bronze medal match, the Falcons earned a 30-point lead and held on for a comfortable 76-58 victory over Medicine Hat. Lukas Angelstad earned tournament all-star honours.
The Falcons and Knights meet for the first time in a double-header on Tuesday, Dec. 10. The senior girls game tips off at 5:30 p.m. and the boys get underway at 7:15 p.m.
Check westernwheel.ca for a full report and photo gallery from Tuesday evening.
