 NEWS PHOTO IAN SORENSEN - Players scramble for a loose ball during varsity boys basketball action at Medicine Hat High School on Wednesday evening. |
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Asked to step up his game, Quinton Slack responded.
Following a pair of tough losses last week, the Grade 11 Hat High forward led the way in a 78-61 home court win over Lethbridge's Winston Churchill Wednesday night.
Slack had 27 points and nine rebounds, including the first seven points of the second half as the Mohawks improved to 3-4 in the regular season.
"(Coach Chad Watson) told me to become a man tonight," said Slack, a 6-foot-2 forward who got most of his points by running the floor and going hard to the basket. "Just become more physical, get a lot more rebounds and putbacks, and run the floor."
Josh Sparkes, a Grade 10 guard, added 16 points, six assists and five steals for a young squad that sports only two Grade 12 players on its roster.
Mike Pierzchala had 15 for Winston Churchill, which fell to 1-6 in the Southern Alberta High School Basketball League.
After falling 112-107 to LCI and 76-68 to Chinook in Lethbridge last week, Hat High needed a pick-me-up and had good energy on defence. With parity the operative word in the league this season ÑÊLCI is 5-1 despite the narrow win over Hat High ÑÊthe Mohawks know a bit of momentum could go a long way come playoff time.
"When you coach such a young team, the biggest problem you have is if we were to play the No. 1 team tomorrow, we would play with them. If we were to play the worst team, we'd play with them," said Watson, whose team heads to Taber for a tournament this weekend.
In the junior varsity game the Mohawks won 66-56, led by 14 points from Matt Wong. Pierzchala, a Grade 10 forward, had 22 for the Bulldogs.
Super South starts
Five of the top-10 ranked 3A boys teams in the province will tip off at Crescent Heights and Monsignor McCoy starting today in the newly-coined Super South Tournament.
No. 1 Chestermere, No. 2 Cochrane, No. 5 Crescent Heights, No. 8 McCoy and No. 9 Canmore are all in the 16-team varsity draw. There's also 16 more teams in a junior varsity event.
See HoSTS, Page A10
The hosts both play their opening-round matchups tonight, with the Vikings taking on Calgary's James Fowler at 4:30 p.m. in their gym and the Colts hosting Highwood (High River) at 6:15 p.m. at McCoy.
Play continues through the weekend with the varsity final at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Crescent Heights.
SEBC results
Monsignor McCoy's boys tuned up for the Super South with a 98-90 win over Eagle Butte Wednesday.
Eryk Babyn and Calen Anton each had 20 for the Colts. Eagle Butte is also in the Super South, drawing top-seeded Chestermere Friday morning.
Also at Eagle Butte, the Colts varsity girls romped to a 96-32 win over the young Talons. McCoy remains the No. 2-ranked team in Alberta at the 3A level following semester break rankings. Cierra Matsalla had 19 and Marni MacKay had 18 points.
In junior boys action Crescent Heights toppled Chamberlain 64-35, led by 15 points from Scott Bowlen.
