The Holy Trinity Academy Knights lost their leader in the opening battle of Troy.
The Knights went 1-2 at the Father Michael Troy Sr. boys basketball tournament in Edmonton Feb. 4-5.
HTA’s chances of defending its title got sidelined when Grade 12 point guard Jared Helinsky got banged up in the opening 10 minutes of the tournament against Red Deer’s Notre Dame Cougars.
“Jared got hurt in the first seven minutes of the first game,” Knights head coach Sam Aiello said. “Shebo Wang had to step in and play point guard for the entire tournament and he did a great job after being thrown into a tough position.”
The Knights jumped out to an 8-0 lead against the Cougars, when Helinsky won the battle, but was sent to the MASH unit as a result.
“Jared stepped in to take a charge and it was against a big kid,” Aiello said. “Jared got the charge, but we lost him for the tournament.”
HTA wound up losing to the Cougs 59-45 with Grade 11 student Cole Fieseler leading the Knights with seven points.
The Knights then drew Louis St. Laurent from Edmonton. They dropped a 67-59 decision to the Barons.
Chase Casavant was HTA’s top scorer with 13 points. Jordan Cyr and Anthony Cave contributed 10 points each in the loss.
The Knights rebounded to win their final game when they beat the host school St. Joseph Saints 71-67 — thanks to a big rebound from HTA’s tallest player.
“We were down 10 going into the fourth quarter and then with about five minutes left we put on some pressure and chipped away at the lead,” Aiello said. “We tied it at 67-67 with a minute left.”
The quick-hands of Wang caused a turnover shortly after HTA tied the game.
“We got the steal at midcourt and Shebo dished it off to Anthony Cave who went into score to make it 69-67,” Aiello said.
The Saints were forced to foul and the Knights’ shooting from the charity stripe was downright foul.
“We went to the line eight times and we were 0-8,” Aiello said with a chuckle. “That’s four different guys missing two shots each.”
The Knights were up 69-67 with five seconds left when they missed their eighth free throw in less than a minute.
“On that eighth miss, Seth Moser stepped in and grabbed the offensive rebound for a put-back to make it 71-67 at the buzzer,” Aiello said.
Wang’s hard work got noticed. He was selected the Knights’ tournament all-star.
The Knights have a tall order tonight (Feb. 10) when they host the Foothills Falcons in a showdown for first-place in the Foothills Athletic Council.
“If we can get Jared back in the lineup, we can make it competitive,” Aiello said. “Without Jared it is going to be a difficult task for sure.”
The Knights go into the game as the seventh-ranked team in the 3A provincial rankings, while the Falcons earned a honourable mention among 4A schools.
The Falcons and Knights girls squads will square off first in another match of undefeated teams at HTA tonight.
The girls tip off at 5:30 p.m. with the boys’ showdown to follow at 7:15 p.m.
