If it wasn’t before, Okotoks basketball is firmly on the 4A provincial basketball map.
The Foothills Falcons girls and Holy Trinity Academy Knights boys earned best-ever finishes fourth and top-eight, respectively, with impressive showings at the ASAA 4A Provincial Basketball Championships in Red Deer.
“It’s a special group of young ladies,” said Falcons head coach Amron Gwilliam. “Almost everywhere we went, people would look at us and think there’s no way this team is ranked fourth in the province, we’re small, but we’re mighty in heart and after we would play them, coaches and parents would say, ‘That team is for real, that team is tough.’
“And they’re as good a people off the floor as they are basketball players.”
The Falcons took out Medicine Hat High 76-57 in their opener and in the quarterfinal round got past a tough Magrath Pandas squad by a 61-54 score. Dior Sellars had 22 points in the quarterfinal victory with Foothills erasing a 13-point deficit at the half.
“We had to change up our defence and make some adjustments on the offensive end too,” the coach added. “Our girls really responded to that in the second half.”
In the semifinal, Foothills drew the top-seed Raymond Comets, led by Canadian national junior team member Delaney Gibb.
The Comets, who went on to win provincial gold convincingly, won 105-63.
“(Gibb) is on a different planet than everybody else,” Gwilliam said. “We tried to contain her and it was one of those games where she might have had her best game of the year.
“We thought if they had a bit of an off night and we had a really good game that we could stay with them, but it was the opposite, it felt like every shot from every spot on the floor went in.”
In the bronze medal match, Foothills dropped a nailbiter 74-70 to the L.C.I. Rams with a three-point shot to tie in the final seconds just rimming out.
“It was a huge mix of emotions for everyone,” Gwilliam said. “We were incredibly sad we couldn’t get the bronze medal and the disappointment of that game hit us at once. That mixed with the emotion of the joy of what we had accomplished, more than any other 4A girls team in our school in the past with a top-four finish and that also mixed with that being the last game together.”
Foothills’ fantastic four graduates include Sellars, Ella Watkins, Addisyn Gwilliam and Alexa Hayes.
Gwilliam said there’s been a stark difference in how the Falcons are perceived across the province from when he started at the school.
“When I first started this 15 years ago, we were in a way begging the top tournaments to take us in,” he said. “Now, those top teams, those top tournaments are saying, ‘We need you to come to our tournament, we need your school to be there’ and ‘We want to come to your school and play you because you’re one of the best teams on the boys and girls side.’
“I think there’s definitely been a shift around allowing us to play those elite teams and now it’s becoming those elite teams and teams want to play us because we’re in that group.”
Top Knights
The Knights earned their first top-eight finish in their second trip to the 4A senior boys provincial championships.
“It’s just a testament to our area and our zone,” said Knights head coach Sam Aiello. “In the Okotoks area, all of our feeder programs, our junior high schools plus our community programs, they’re really helping us at the high school level.
“We’ve got kids coming in with a better IQ, better knowledge of the game, better skills and it helps us to compete at that higher level.”
The Knights finished in the top-eight by virtue of their opening win, a 73-50 result over Ross Sheppard.
“Being at 4A provincials was just a great experience,” Aiello said. “And I would say that’s one of the hardest tournament to win in high school sports in Alberta.”
In the quarterfinal, HTA was upended 59-49 in a low-scoring affair versus the No. 4 seed St. FX, eventual silver medallists.
“It was really low scoring, just a real defensive battle both sides,” Aiello said. “No one could get off any easy shots, but in the end, they made a couple extra shots and were able to pull it out.”
In the next round with a spot in the fifth-place game on the line, HTA took on the No. 1 seed Medicine Hat High and lost a tight 78-69 match.
“We weren’t expecting them to be upset in the quarterfinals against Western, but we end up playing the No. 1 seed and had an unbelievable first half,” Aiello said. “We were up nine at halftime and second half our shooting went as cold as cold could be.
“They kept cutting back into the lead and eventually took the lead on us there. They’re a really big team with three 6-foot-7 kids, and the size definitely hurt us a little bit.”
Aiello said the HTA senior contingent, a group that includes Lucas Barlow, Xavier Krueger, Owen Vanin, Jack Gilbert and Chris Peloso, led the way all weekend.
“Our Grade 12s were a big part of our team this whole season,” he added. “And I’m just hoping they set a great example for our younger guys for next year to emulate what they did this year.”
Diamond Valley’s Oilfields Drillers had a 2A provincial experience on two fronts on the weekend.
The Drillers girls, ranked 8th in the province, finished in the top-eight in Lethbridge.
Oilfields edged Central Christian 46-36 in its opener with Anya Pain posting a team-high 16 points. The Drillers were then downed in the quarterfinal round by the No. 1 seed and host Immanuel Christian.
They wrapped up the competition in a narrow 58-52 loss to Kate Andrews.
In Edmonton, the No. 10 seed Drillers boys earned a top-10 finish.
Following an 87-73 loss to Rundle College, Oilfields bounced back with a win over host Millwoods Christian 104-85 to move to the ninth-place final where they were defeated 87-73 by Lamont.
