Top seeds prevail at 1A/2A South Zones
The Lundbreck Livingstone Sabres completed the sweep for the top-seeded teams earning this year’s championship banners at the 1A/2A South Zone Basketball Championships Saturday night at the Val Matteotti Gymnasium at Lethbridge College.
Sabres downed the secondranked Senator Gershaw Gators 72-37 in the final draw Saturday night.
Livingstone’s gold medal capped off a day in which all the top-ranked boys and girls teams came away with the South Zone titles.
In the 1A girls final, the the Stirling Lakers beat the Milk River Erle Rivers Novas 85-45, while the Immanuel Christian Eagles girls team defeated the Coaldale Kate Andrews Pride 79-28 to capture this year’s 2A bragging rights.
In the 2A boys final, the firstranked Claresholm Willow Creek Cobras beat the Vauxhall Vikings 86-84 in overtime.
In the 1A boys final Saturday night, Jonathan Erickson led the Sabres with 20 points and Quinlan Connelly-Engel added 15.
Brady Douglas posted another 14 points for Livingstone.
For the Gators, Tyler Phillips led the way with 13 points.
In the 1A boys bronze medal game, the Pincher Creek St. Michaels Dragons beat Coaldale Christian 81-51 as Mitchel Zoratti hit for 22 points and Calvin Cooley had 18.
Tyler Gerber and Michael Svab each scored 10 points for St. Michael’s.
Owen de Boer led Coaldale Christian with 19 points and Nico Ringelberg scored 12.
Livingstone, Senator Gershaw and Pincher Creek now advance to the 1A boys provincials at Rundle College in Calgary.
1A girls
In the 1A girls final, the Lakers lived up to their number-one billing with an 8545 win over the number-two Novas.
Amy Mazutinec paced the Lakers with a 31-point afternoon, while teammate Sadie Nelson chipped in with 28.
Savannah McKee put up 14 points for Stirling and Gracie Nelson had 13.
For Erle Rivers, Grace Snow and Leah Oswald each scored 10 points.
Both the Lakers and Novas advance to provincials in Bawlf as the South Zone representatives.
In the 1A girls bronze medal game, the Foremost Forettes won a close 66-64 decision over the Senator Gershaw Gators as Rayna Yancie and Kamryn Yancie each scored 21 points for Foremost.
Hannah Walsh contributed 11 points for Foremost in the bronze medal win.
Three players scored 11 points for Senator Gershaw as Montana Lockhart, Paige Tiffin and Megan Jonker hit that mark. Cassidy Andreas scored 10 points for Senator Gershaw.
2A girls
The Eagles downed the Pride 79-28, led by Juliana Middel’s 20-point afternoon.
Britney Vande Munt scored 18 points for Immanuel Christian and Brittany Veldman added 16.
Victoria Reed led the Pride with nine points.
Immanuel Christian and Coaldale are provincials-bound next week to Three Hills to represent the South Zone.
The Picture Butte Sugar Queens captured the girls 2A bronze medal thanks to a 68-65 win over the Vauxhall Queens.
Nicole Elaschuk led the Sugar Queens with 19 points and Tasha Reiter had 18.
Vanessa Boone added 12 points for Picture Butte.
Jordan Bell and Meagan
2A boys
The Cobras gold medal didn’t come easy as Willow Creek Cobras edged Vauxhall 86-84 in overtime.
Nic Harder and Jean Pierre Otero Rodriguez each netted 29 points for Willow Creek in Saturday night’s gold medal game, while Ross VanRootselaar hit for 16.
Damiano Palmegiani led Vauxhall with 27 points and Garrett Hawkins also topped the 20-point mark with 21.
Ben Erwin added 13 points for Vauxhall. Liam Vulcano had an 11-point outing for the silver medallists.
The Cobras now represent the South Zone at provincials next week in Edson.
In the 2A boys bronze medal game, the third-seeded Immanuel Christian Eagles defeated the Kainai Warriors 65-58 as Bas Sluijmers and Levi Vroom led the way with 14 points each. Jeremy Van Belle chipped in with 12 points for the gold medallists.
Leading Kainai was Wyatt Buckskin with 15 points. Jett Daychief scored 13.
James Harden had a tripledouble of 38 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds to outduel fellow MVP contender LeBron James and lead the Houston Rockets to a 117-112 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on