The St. Mary girls Sharks basketball team will take its results at the Hay Lake Invitational tournament Feb. 18-19 as a learning experience.
“We had definitely a schizophrenic kind of performance,” said coach Peter Molesky. “Two reasonably decent performances sandwiching a poor performance in between.”
In their first game on Friday evening, the Sharks played the province’s fourth-ranked 1A school from Daysland and lost 71-26. Molesky said the team did not expect to win, and instead had playing as well as it could as the goal.
“We had a loss in our first game, but we weren’t unhappy about it,” he said.
On Saturday morning, the team was back on the court to take on the 3A Bonnyville Centralized. The game ended with the Sharks falling 66-24.
“On Saturday morning, we undid everything that we did good on Friday night,” Molesky said, adding it was frustrating for the girls to play so poorly after they had played so well the night before.
These two losses relegated the Sharks to the seventh-place game, where they took on Cornerstone, a fellow 1A school. This ended more favourably for the Sharks, as they were able to come away 61-37 winners.
“The girls took it to them,” Molesky said. “They had a very good offensive display and the defence did everything we wanted it to do too.”
After the tournament, he took a moment to recognize a few players who had had strong games.
He said Angela Doell had a strong tournament overall, and has been a good leader for the team all season.
In the Cornerstone game, he said Nadine Duperron (20 points), Janna Bokenfohr (three 3-point baskets) and Erin Wiese (quick on fast breaks) all played well and were key components in the win.
On the whole, Molesky said he is pleased with the progress the team has made this year.
“Things are coming together,” he said. “They’re getting their timing down and seeing more of the court. It’s a growing process.”
The Sharks next play an exhibition game on Feb. 23 in Boyle.
After that, they are hosting the Cathy Mitchell Memorial tournament on Feb. 25-26. Their first game is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Friday against Hay Lakes.
