One win was all the BCHS JV girls basketball team needed to win their first tournament of the year, but they weren’t able to get it done.
Playing in a tournament in Morinville on Dec. 10, the girls handily defeated their first two opponents before falling to Athabasca 48-32 in the championship game.
Still, despite the loss, assistant coach Kristina Shepansky said it was a good game full of lessons for the future.
“It taught them different things and what they need to work on,” she said.
The Gryphons started the final game strong, Shepansky said, but eventually wilted under the pressure Athabasca threw at them. As their opponents started scoring more points, the Gryphons weren’t able to counter.
“They started not playing as well and their defence started to slack,” she said.
However, she added that in the second half of that game, the Gryphons gritted their teeth and made a game of it, but weren’t able to come up with the points they needed to pull out the win.
Leading up to the final game, the Gryphons opened the tournament with a 43-14 win over Onoway.
With the game being the first time the girls had all played together, there were some growing pains as they got accustomed to each other, Shepansky said. The first quarter was a bumpy experience, she said, but things steadily improved.
“At the beginning of the second (quarter), they started to pull everything together,” she said. “Their defence got better, their passing got better, and by half they were playing really good as a team.”
Their second game was against host Morinville Composite. Once again, the Gryphons showed what they were made of, coasting to a 46-18 win.
Shepansky said the girls played strong defence all game, and took advantage of a lot of fast breaks to march on to the big win.
Those two wins sent the girls on to the final, where they met Athabasca.
Overall, Shepansky said it was a good tournament for the girls when taking into account their situation.
“They played really well considering they only had one practice together,” she said. “They played well as a team even though not everybody’s played together before.”
Shepansky said the Gryphons’ next tournament action comes when they host their home tournament on Jan. 14 at BCHS.
