A very long season came to an end just a bit too early for the senior girls from Edwin Parr Composite.
For the four year in a row, the EPC Predators met up with Morinville in the North Central zone final, and it was the second time that EPC weren’t able to grab the spot at provincials.
The Predators, who hosted the zone tournament, lost 50-37 in the final Saturday night after defeating Edson earlier in the day by a score of 40-30 and getting by Onoway to open things up on Friday 44-26.
“I am very proud of the girls and what they have accomplished,” said head coach Wade Hicks.
“It’s been a long year with injuries and other things. It was rare we had a full team, so we struggled to find wins and it’s quite the accomplishment to get to .500 this season considering everything.”
Even being the #3 seed at zones, Hicks found teams were looking past them, something Edson did at their peril.
“There were people that had counted us out,” he stated.
“That just made us come together and the girls played the best they had all year. It was really impressive to see the effort.
“We had prepared for all these teams and knew just what we needed to do. In the end, the girls just simply ran out of gas.”
That preparation was easily seen in the games against Edson – where EPC put together a 16-4 run in the second quarter to put Edson on their heels – and in the final, where they forced Morinville to abandon their previous successful press.
Having four Grade 11s and seven Grade 10s for this year will prove to make them one of the favourites for a provincial berth next season.
“Watching them execute on the court, showed just how much the team grew this season,” Hick said.
“They are going to look really good next year, and I think with the talent and skill we have now plus with the players that are coming up, we could be among the top 10 in the province.
“It’s really rare to find a group that are willing to do what ever it takes and won’t quit. The girls were strong, but just ran out of gas.”
Boys in tough
Meanwhile, the EPC senior boys squad went winless in the three games they played at their zone tournament held over the weekend in Morinville.
They started off falling Barrhead, who is one of the top teams in Alberta.
“It was a good game for us, down just six after the first quarter,” said coach Mitchell Snow, “but their size was just too much to handle.”
That pitted them against another challenging team in Westlock, which ended in another loss despite a good and hard effort.
In their final game early Saturday morning, EPC came up versus Drayton Valley, coming up just short.
“We matched up well with them,” Snow said.
“It was a close game that went back and forth the whole way through, but we just couldn’t get the result we wanted and came up on the short end of a 66-59 battle.
