Joann Deveau Photo
Edmonton – The Morinville Orijen Sabretooths Bantam Girls team returned to town Saturday night ranked the fourth best team in the province after two days of provincial competitions. After sweeping the regular season 15-0 and taking gold in the Edmonton Youth Basketball City Championships the previous weekend, the Bantam Sabretooths entered some fierce competition from other top-ranked teams in the province, falling in the bronze-medal game to earn fourth spot.
The girls started provincials Friday night at the Saville Community Sports Centre in Edmonton, taking to the court against Bow River in their opener. After a promising first quarter in which the girls trailed Bow River 9-8, the gap widened to 20-11 at the half. Though the girls sprung back from the other side of the court to close the third with a 28-25 deficit, they were unable to turn the tied in the final quarter and lost 38-26.
The girls returned to the court early Saturday morning to take on Airdrie, building from a 16-4 first quarter lead to end the half leading Airdrie 23-9. The momentum continued on the other side of the court as the girls ended the third 35-22 before finish the contest 49-30.
A similar outcome took place in the afternoon against Southeast Swam. The Bantam girls lead the first quarter 14-3, completed the half leading 27-13, and built to a 38-16 lead by the end of the third quarter. The final quarter saw the Swam accumulating another two points to Morinville’s seven. Final score 45-18.
The win put the Morinville basketball players into the bronze medal game against the SBA Thunder, a team Morinville defeated 42-33 the previous weekend to take the Edmonton Youth Basketball city Championship.
But the Thunder were not as easily defeated a weekend later. The girls ended the first quarter trailing the Thunder 9-8, ended the second quarter trailing 15-13, and ened the third trailing 25-23. The final quarter saw more tense play as the girls tried to close a narrow margin to turn the contest in their favour. In the end, Morinville fell 38-34 in a hard fought game.
Morinville’s Mini Girls Sabretooth team also finished fourth in the province over the weekend after taking gold in city championship the weekend before.
