St. Mary School’s senior girls basketball team are off to a solid start claiming a silver medal at the season-opening Ice Breaker tournament in Hay Lakes Dec. 14-15.
Though they ultimately lost to the host team, head coach Keiley Sankey said she was very proud of the team’s hustle and liked what she saw.
“They played much better as a team than I expected,” she said. “A lot of our Grade 9 girls have to step up and play because we were a bit short. One of our players ended up leaving because she had the flu, but we still pulled something together.”
First besting Caroline School, the girls were then defeated by Hay Lakes in the round robin, but rebounded to beat Bashaw school to secure a place in the final of the four-team tournament.
However, Hay Lakes was able to hang on and take the gold. Regardless, with a strong core of four veterans and a determined group of newcomers, Sankey said she saw good things in the Sharks future.
“We’re going to be working on our rebound and our passing, as well as more training on defence,” she said. “But overall we have a strong team.”
Boys winless
The senior boys did not fare as well, losing three straight to be eliminated in the round robin.
Coach Darcy Romanuik said the tournament was a good eye opener for the boys.
“It could have went better. We have been going to this tournament for years and this was the first time we went 0-3,” he said.
“We lead for the majority of our games, but being a young team we just couldn’t close it out. We have the shots, we’re just not scoring.”
He said they would regroup during practices this week before breaking for the holidays.
“We have to get back to the basic fundamentals,” he said. “We may be outskilled so far, but we won’t be outworked. We’ll get there. It’s just going to take some baby steps, but there’s still plenty of basketball to play.”
Both make their home-court debut at the Jan. 11 Romes Classic at the Rotary Spirit Centre.
