Outskilled, but not outworked.
After a stellar first half where they managed to gain a 26-point lead at one point, the St. Mary Sharks senior boys basketball team lost to Grand Trunk 82-49 in the final of the 1A North Central Zones on Saturday.
“I’m extremely proud of the guys. They played well. It just wasn’t in the cards,” said coach Darcy Romanuik.
Hosting the North Central Zone championship at St. Mary School, the Sharks got off to a strong start on Friday night by downing St. Francis Assisi 75-40.
The Sharks then went up against Redwater in their second match on Saturday, defeating their opponents 68-52.
That put St. Mary into the championship final against Grand Trunk.
Both wins by St. Mary were fairly decisive. “I think the top two teams were in the final,” added Romanuik.
The championship final was delayed by an extremely close match between Redwater and Holy Trinity for the bronze medal, which ended up going into overtime before Holy Trinity pulled out the win.
Grand Trunk was heavily favoured in the final, as their team is ranked third in the province and they haven’t suffered a defeat all season. However, St. Mary managed to gain an early lead, and were still up 38-32 at halftime.
“We were happy half time came, because they were kind of inching back,” said Romanuik.
“I though the break came at the right time. (But) the momentum we had, we just couldn’t get it back.”
It was telling that in the third quarter, St. Mary only managed to score four points. By the end, Grand Trunk had run away with the game.
“Hats off to all the guys,” said Romanuik. “As I’ve often said, you may be outskilled by another team, but let’s not be outworked. And I don’t think we were outworked.”
Romanuik noted they are still a fairly young team — they had two Grade 9s playing most of the match.
“We came up a little short, but we scared them,” he said. “I would have been ecstatic had we had won. That said, if you had told me when we started the season that we’d be in the zone final and leading at the half, I wouldn’t have believed it.”
The St. Mary Sharks senior girls basketball team went 1-2 at the 1A North Central Zone Championship in New Sarepta this weekend, losing their first two games and winning their third.
Coach Peter Molesky said they knew going in they would have some difficulties, noting that their team has four Grade 9 players on it and one of their veterans was missing.
“The girls who were there were a little bit tentative when we start, because they didn’t know how well they were going to play without her,” he said. “That affected our composure more than anything else.”
Molesky said they do have a couple of graduates from the program this year, but they are looking forward to having a full crew next season, noting there are some girls coming up from the junior high.
“Hopefully by next season, we’ll be a better team,” he said.
