With only another month left before the big zone tournament, both of the Edwin Parr Composite senior basketball teams are working on things that will help them get closer to a possible berth at their respective provincial tournaments later in March.
For the senior girls, they played a tune up game last Tuesday at the EPC gym against Onoway, which wound up as a 30-plus point victory for the home side. More importantly though, for head coach Wade Hicks, it was an opportunity to get the team to work a few new wrinkles he added just that day.
“I thought we played well,” Hicks said.
“I just taught the girls a brand new zone offence only an hour before the game, so we were trying it out against Onoway. We made a few mistakes, which I expected, but all in all they played well.”
The team was supposed to head down to a tournament in Medicine Hat this past weekend, but were short a few players – due a few nursing some minor injuries – so they cancelled the trip.
The girls are back in action on their home floor again today versus Devon (tip off scheduled for 4:30 p.m.).
Hicks added he will get his club to keep working on the new additions to their game in this contest so they have something new in the mix before the zone tournament next month.
After tonight’s game, the girls will have this weekend off and next see action at a tournament in Cold Lake that starts Feb. 20.
On the senior boys side of the court, it’s been an interesting season so far as the team has just started playing regularly following a slow start and a switch in coaches.
Mitchell Snow is one of four EPC alumni that are helping coach the senior boys this season, after the team went the first weeks without a coach.
The boys also played Onoway last Tuesday, and despite falling by 20 points, Snow was pleased with how the game went.
“We started off slow, which wasn’t good, but once we got going we played really well,” Snow said.
“Our big men did well holding down their big men and our defence was awesome, especially in the second half. Everyone stepped up as a group and really limited their scoring chances.”
The team then face a huge challenge over the weekend, heading to Lloydminster to play in a tournament that featured some larger schools as well as some schools that are near the top of their leagues.
Snow explained the boys did okay in spite of losing all three of their games.
“There was some good competition and we were in every game,” he said.
“We had a lot of high points during the weekend, a lot of guys stepped up on offence and helped out in big ways. Our inexperience was probably our biggest trouble, but we have shown tremendous improvement and will continue to get better.”
That process continues tonight when the boys play Devon at EPC, tip off at 6:15 p.m. Also, the boys are in a tournament in Morinville this weekend.
