CANADA against the world
Jennifer Jones and Team Canada opened the women’s world curling championship with two games Saturday
The Taber W.R. Myers Rebels girls basketball team are provincial champions once again.
The Rebels defeated Spruce Grove St. Peter the Apostle 6353 in the gold medal game of the 3A Alberta Schools Athletic Association provincial championship Saturday night in Cochrane.
The win capped off a sixmedal day at provincials for the South Zone.
In an all-South 1A girls gold medal game in Lacombe, the Stirling Lakers downed the Foremost Forettes 74-71 and at the 2A boys provincial championship in Claresholm the Willow Creek Cobras delivered at home with an 8680 win over the Edmonton Millwoods Christian Royals to capture another gold medal.
In the 4A boys bronze medal game in Medicine Hat, the Magrath Zeniths captured third thanks to a 57-48 win over the Cardston Cougars.
Meanwhile at the 2A girls final at Kainai High School, the Immanuel Christian Eagles took the silver medal after a loss to La Crete Public School. A score wasn’t available at press time.
On Saturday night in Cochrane, some comeback basketball and a high-scoring, but also shutdown, fourth quarter vaulted the Rebels to their fourth provincial medal in the past four years after winning bronze four years ago, gold two years ago and silver last year before returning to top spot this year.
The Rebels trailed 14-13 after the first quarter and 30-22 at halftime.
However, W.R. Myers rallied in the second half, edging Spruce Grove 17-15 in the third quarter before dominating the fourth quarter 24-8 to open up the 10-point lead.
“They (Spruce Grove) were very aggressive and I was telling the girls they can’t continue to be that aggressive and it put them in some foul trouble,” said Rebels head coach Kenney Wood. “We just slowly pecked at their lead and we got it back. They got really tight and their shots just weren’t dropping. They had a few players show some aggravation and get fouled out.”
The Rebels coach credited the Southern Alberta High School Basketball League in which his team plays — and posted a 5-9 regular season record — in toughing his team up for the provincial stage.
“We’ve had some really hard games where you win by two points or you lose by two points, it builds character and it prepares them for the games where we’re down,” said Wood. “Fortunately, the girls believed what I was saying that we would slowly get this back, one possession at a time, and they did. I’m really happy with the way they played.”
Now, they have four provincial medals is as many years to show for it.
“We have three seniors (Reagan Bailey, Langley Moser and Lauren Steed) who play extremely hard,” said Wood, who also credited his assistant coaches Marty Johnson and Brandon Bullock in this year’s title. “They’re very good players. They don’t get the spotlight, but they contribute with their smarts and that’s what we want seniors to do. Down the stretch, they did what they were supposed do to, control the ball and keep possession. Down the stretch, that’s what it came down to. When there were four minutes left I told them to count the possessions down and if we take care of the ball they can’t catch up. So they passed it around and got some good looks, made a couple of three and pounded it inside. The whole weekend was really a team effort.
“The girls weren’t worried, and if they were they didn’t show it,” added Wood. “They had a number of people come up and congratulate them on their composure and again, that’s a credit to the league we play in. You can’t freak out, because if you do you start going to things that aren’t helpful. The girls never did that. They kept moving the ball around and using their teammates and trusting their teammates.”
Kitawna Sparks led the Rebels Saturday with 19 point and 16 boards, while Austen Robbins had 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Steed had eight points and 11 rebounds, Moser had 10 points and Dani Wright had 10 rebounds.
A lower ranking heading into the weekend actually helped the Rebels.
“We kind of came in under the radar, ranked at number three,” said Wood. “In the last three years going to provincials we had been number one. So you have a huge target and we felt the relief of not having that.”
On the boys side, the Rebels won their final game of the weekend to take 11th place courtesy a 77-57 win over Calgary Bowness.
See Monday’s Herald for the complete high school basketball provincial wrap up.
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