Game of the Week - Sunday, March 17, 2013 1:26 - 0 Comments

Cardston Dominates 4A Provincial Tournament

Jonas Emilsson www.KramMag.com The long caravan of vehicles making their way south on Highway 2 from Calgary to Cardston surely laid on the horns and flashed their headlights in celebration of the small Alberta town’s complete dominance on the hard court Saturday night at Crescent Heights High School in Calgary. First, the Cardston Cougars senior girls basketball team grabbed their first ever provincial 4A banner thanks to a 71-59 victory over the school’s arch rival Raymond High School. A couple of hours later, the Cardston boy’s team was busy cutting the netting from the rim after their hard-fought 71-66 win over Calgary’s Bishop Grandin Ghosts to claim their second consecutive 4A title. [caption id="attachment_2455" align="alignleft" width="600"] Photo by Jonas Emilsson[/caption]                         The boys almost didn’t get to the final, needing a last second miracle shot in their semifinal game against Edmonton’s St. Francis Xavier to get to Saturday night’s championship game. But once they were there they were lights out for the majority of the game. And having watched the girls win before them, they had all the motivation they needed to overcome a very good Ghosts squad. “It actually gave us a lot of help,” said Cougars head coach Kevin Quinton about watching the girls win.  “Them winning it for the first time is great for us too, gave us some inspiration to do the same thing.” Quinton’s squad implemented their exhausting high-tempo pace right from the opening tip.  The Ghosts tried to match, but it only led to turnovers and rushed shots that seldom found the mark, leading to fast break rushes by the Cougars. The Ghosts would have been better off getting the ball down low to their big man Grant Peters, who proved to be plenty of trouble for the Cougars’ smaller defenders.  The only problem was he didn’t get nearly enough touches until it was too late. “We wanted to push the ball as much as we could,” said Quinton.  “We knew if we pushed the ball we had a better chance of winning and that’s what we did as a team.  It took the whole team to do that.” Peters finished with a game-high 22 points along with pulling down double-digit rebounds. The Cougars were led on the score sheet by Justin Folsom’s 18 points, followed by Lincoln Anderson’s 17 points. The Cougars led by as many as 19 points in the third quarter and appeared to be cruising towards a lop-sided victory.  But the Ghosts started to rally late in the third quarter and cut the Cougars’ lead to 13 heading into the final quarter. The Ghosts rode their momentum into the fourth quarter, and at the 9:09 mark they had whittled the lead down to a single digit, 59-50 score. But a large deficit is tough to make up against a quality opponent. “It’s tough to come back,” sighed Ghosts head coach Mike Henry.  “They’re a great team and they play extremely well.” “It wasn’t our day today.  We had a great season so we’re not holding our heads down.” The Cougars did some bending, but they far from broke down the stretch thanks to hitting some clutch shots down the stretch as well as coming up with key stops that kept the Ghosts from completing the improbably comeback. [caption id="attachment_2456" align="alignleft" width="600"] Photo by Jonas Emilsson[/caption]               Saturday night was the first live look either team had of each other this season, meaning prep time was limited to some video.  Regardless of what the Cougars’ coaching staff saw, it was clear that they were determined to play their run-and-gun style, and with any luck, the Ghosts would be forced to match them. “We didn’t see Grandin all year, we got some tape on them and watched a couple of their games, we knew they were tough inside and could shoot the ball from the outside, we just had to play tough defense,” said Quinton. To add to the Ghosts’ problems, they were without the services of senior point guard Austen Hartley, a player that Henry relies heavily on to lead his team on both ends of the court. “We were missing Hartley, who was hurt, but we did our best without him but to climb back from 20, it’s hard to get that last five is tough,” admitted Henry. “He really helps us defensively, he’s capable of scoring 20 points but he’s also the guy that locks down the other team’s best point guard.” According to Quinton, gutting it out at the end of a game has been one of the reasons for his team’s success.  Several times this year they’ve played in close games that forced them to learn how to win when the pressure was on in the last seconds of a game. “My kids play with a lot of heart all the time, we’ve been through this before.  We’ve won a lot of games by one or two points, and that’s all I ask of my kids, to work hard.” Give the Ghosts credit, they turned what could have been a rout into a fantastic matchup that thrilled the 2000 plus people that crammed into the stands, but in the end they just didn’t have enough on this night to make it a miracle comeback. “It was a hard-fought game by both sides,” said Quinton.  “Both teams played really hard and you couldn’t ask for a better final.” [caption id="attachment_2457" align="alignleft" width="600"] Photo by Jonas Emilsson[/caption]