LAKELAND - Three area schools are heading to basketball provincials, following strong showings in the 1A girls and 2A categories at Northeast Alberta Schools' Athletic Association (NEASAA) zone tournaments hosted throughout the region.
St. Paul and area schools were hosts to a number of the zone tournaments, along with Cold Lake and Vegreville.
While the host 1A girls' team from FG Miller Jr/Sr High School in Elk Point faced a couple tough losses, the Mallaig Stingers were able to secure first place, beating E.H. Walter from Paradise Valley in the final, and earning themselves a spot at 1A provincials.
Going into the weekend ranked in second place, the Mallaig Stingers had a bye into the semi-final game, where they came up against their neighbouring rivals - Glendon School. The Mallaig team won 48-13.
"That put our team in the final game against E.H. Walter from Paradise Valley," says coach Adele Dechaine. "Our team played an extremely defensive first quarter with the score being 7-5 after the first quarter."
Mallaig had a stronger second quarter, and the score would be 25-9 at half. From there, there was no looking back, says Dechaine.
"The girls continued to play to their best potential thus far, and finished the game with a score of 77-27. Our team consists of two Grade 9s, one Grade 10, five Grade 11s, and three Grade 12s."
The season was extra special for Dechaine, whose older daughters helped her out with coaching, and her youngest daughter was among the Grade 11 student-athletes playing on the court.
In the bronze meal game, St. Mary’s Catholic School from Vegreville beat Glendon School.
The 1A boys zone championship took place in Vegreville, hosted by St. Mary's Catholic School. E.H. Walter from Paradise Valley won first place, St. Mary's took the silver medals, and Marwayne won third place.
2A
On the 2A girls' side, first place was won by Assumption High School out of Cold Lake, and second place went to Vegreville Composite High School. Third Place was won by Lamont High School as the competition wrapped up in Ashmont.
"Overall, I felt the weekend went very well. Zones as a competition ran smoothly while having the most competitors and spectators at our school since COVID regulations were lifted," said Cody Chemilnisky, co-athletic director and a teacher at Ashmont School.
"All the athletes competed at their highest levels, which made each game very exciting to watch and had the crowd cheering nice and loud for the athletes," he added. "There were many smiles and some unfortunate tears over the weekend, but it felt like the athletes and spectators were enjoying themselves overall."
Chemilnisky said many staff members in Ashmont received compliments about the host school and how well the tournament went, "which put a smile on our faces to hear, and hopefully, that means we achieved our goal to run a good, fun zones tournament for everyone to enjoy."
The 2A boys' zone tournament took place in Cold Lake at Assumption Jr./Sr. High School, where the host team would claim the top spot, beating J.R. Robson out of Vermilion by a score of 57-38.
Taking bronze was another area team, as Ashmont beat Kitscoty 91-87 in overtime.
3A
In the 3A girls' category, first place was won by Holy Rosary out of Lloydminster, and second place went to Westwood School from Fort McMurray.
Taking home the bronze medals was the host team, St. Paul Regional High School, who beat Father Mecredi School from Fort McMurray by a score of 51-38.
The J.A. Williams team from Lac La Biche would take fifth place on the girls' side after beating Holy Trinity 71-33.
On the 3A boys' side, first place would go to one of the Fort McMurray teams in the tournament, Father Mecredi School. They would beat Holy Rosary High School from Lloydminster by a score of 65-50 in the final game.
The bronze medal game saw two Fort McMurray teams meet up, with École McTavish beating Holy Trinity High School 52-45.
The host boys' team from St. Paul would win some and lose some, ultimately coming in fifth place after beating J.A. Williams out of Lac La Biche 81-79. The St. Paul boys narrowly lost by just three points on Friday to the eventual zone champions, Father Mecredi School, making for a very close competition, overall.
