It’s becoming an annual winning tradition in Okotoks.
For the second-straight year Holy Trinity Academy’s senior girls basketball squad took home the Knights Classic title at the expense of the McCoy Colts in a 65-44 triumph Saturday night at the Okotoks school.
“It speaks to the work ethic we have in the girls on our team this year,” said Knights co-captain Shelby Dudar. “It’s a great way to kick-off our season with some big wins. Especially considering last year we won this tournament by one or two points, this is a big confidence boost.”
The Knights barely eked out a 53-52 win over the Medicine Hat school one year ago.
With an emphasis on tough defence, points in the paint and rebound dominance the rematch one year in the making was considerably more one-sided.
“With this team our zone works really well. We do a two-three,” said Knights co-captain Elena Brown-Hozjan. “Last year we did more man (defence) and this year we’re switching it up and it’s working for us.
“Especially for teams that get a lot of their points driving, we can keep people in the middle.”
HTA took a 19-8 lead in the first quarter while drawing five fouls to get into the bonus within the first three minutes. The Knights would carry a 37-19 advantage into the break on a buzzer-beater three-point shot from Grade 10 Rachel Anderson.
McCoy, finalists in three of the past four Knights Classic tournaments and winners in 2013, wouldn’t go down without a fight.
The Colts rode their press defence to an even fourth quarter with HTA outscoring the visitors by just one point in the second half.
Still, the result was never really in doubt.
“I’m really impressed with how quickly they’ve gelled as a team and how they support each other,” said Knights coach Scott Royce. “That’s what a tournament like this does. To pull this out of the bag against such a good team, they’re on a high, they’re going to be flying for a couple of days.
“That’s just a brilliant start to the season.”
Brilliant would be the appropriate label for Grade 10 Jordan Bonertz in the final. The rookie forward led the way with 22 points and eight rebounds, fellow rookie Lauren Sinclair added six points and 10 boards.
Brown-Hozjan controlled the paint with a ridiculous 18 rebounds to go along with 10 points.
Impressively, HTA did it with just three players on the bench and without key contributors in Annelise Hielema, Breanne Trotter and Abby Griffiths who were unavailable in the championship game.
“They run hard and go to the end and that’s the character of the team, led by the captains,” Royce said. “Down two starters against a really good team the bench came out strong and really showed a lot of character.”
HTA opened the competition in a 58-38 win over the Robert Thirsk Comets.
Hielema paced the offence with 17 points while Sinclair contributed 12 in the victory.
The Knights then blitzed the Bert Church Chargers by a 74-34 count. Bonertz poured in 18 points, Dudar chipped in with 12 and tenacious point guard Kennedy Brown added 11.
Sinclair was the team’s top player in the first two tournament tilts while Bonertz earned the plaudits from the HTA coaching staff for her efforts in the gold medal game.
The Grade 10 group showed it could more than hold its own during the tournament.
Bonertz was top scorer in two of the three games, Sinclair was a consistent force on the glass and on defence while Anderson and Tiana Miller both showcased considerable offensive acumen.
“All of them are really good team players,” Brown-Hozjan said. “With the Grade 10s it’s a really good foundation for future years.”
All four rookies earned themselves the start in the Knights’ Foothills Athletic Council opener on Dec. 5, a 62-33 win over the Highwood Mustangs. The Knights complete the week with a home date on Dec. 7 versus Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School. Opening tip-off is 5:30 p.m. at Knights gym.
Game action is exactly what the Knights need at this stage.
“We’ve had a couple weeks of practice, but we just need a little bit more experience because it is a fairly new team,” Dudar added. “Just getting experience playing together because we have the talent, it’s going to be about getting us playing together and getting the system down.”
For full schedule information go to fac.teampages.com
