Best laid plans weren’t enough for the Knights to rein in a Classic title.
The Holy Trinity Academy Knights advanced to the Knights Classic final for a sixth straight year only to fall short to the relentless defence of the St. Peter the Apostle Spartans in a 83-55 triumph Saturday night in Okotoks.
“We didn’t run out of gas in the final, St. Peter is a great team,” said Knights coach Sam Aiello. “We knew exactly what to expect. We watched them all weekend. We thought we had a plan for it and we just didn’t execute it the way we should have.
“That’s what good, intense teams do. They take away your rhythm.”
Neither team found its mojo on offence in what was a stalemate through the first two quarters.
The Knights kept it close with a three-pointer from Matt Scharien trimming the deficit to 27-24. The Spartans responded in kind through a 10-0 run to close the half with a 13-point advantage.
“I was hoping we could keep it a three, four-point game, but they extended the lead right at halftime to 13,” Aiello said. “I knew second half was going to be uphill the whole way because we would be trying to take more chances to cut the lead.”
The Spartans and their aggressive press forced turnovers almost at will in the second half with the defence leading to offence in fast-break points from the duo of Mike Ash and Caleb O’Gilvie-Davidson – the tournament MVP.
“We really pride ourselves on our defence. We want to cause chaos, we want to get those turnovers,” said Spartans coach Anthony Mann. “A lot of our defences are designed to do that.
“We just work hard, that’s the key. That defence with our athleticism and lankyness, is optimized.”
St. Peter snuck by Airdrie’s George MacDougall in overtime in the first semifinal followed up by another competitive tilt which saw the Knights outlast a pesky St. Albert Skyhawks squad by a 74-66 count.
HTA earned its stripes at the charity stripe in what was an airtight finish.
“They made us work right to the end,” Aiello said. “We had an 8, 10-point lead for a lot of it then they cut it down to two. Really, at the end we just starting making free-throws.
“We took 47 free-throws in that game, made 33 of them and a lot of them were right in that crucial last few minutes.”
Knights tournament all-star Jesse Ralph led the way with 14 points while Anthony Cave chipped in 13 on offence.
The hosts made a massive introduction to the competition in shooting the lights out en route to a 102-26 romp over Springbank.
Ralph paced the offence with 21 points while Eli McKitrick poured in 14 and Cole Fieseler added 13 of his own.
“The first two games we were really moving the ball and everybody was sharing the scoring,” Ralph said. “We learned from the St. Francis tournament that we had to be more intense and we were through the first two.”
The intensity tapered off a bit in the championship game against an excellent Spartans squad. The jump up in competition from league, from the beginning of the tournament to the end proved to be too high a mountain to climb for the hosts.
“It’s hard when you come in playing those kind of teams and then you have to really up your focus,” Ralph said. “All of a sudden you’re guarding someone who’s doing something that someone before couldn’t and you’re not ready for it.
“That’s something we have to work on, especially going down the stretch.”
The Knights, undefeated in the Foothills Athletic Council through five games, take to the court on Jan. 18 in a local battle at Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School at 5:30 p.m. For full FAC schedule information go to fac.teampages.com
