by Stephen Dafoe
The Morinville Community High School Sr. Girls basketball team welcomed seven teams to Morinville Feb. 3 and 4 for the 23rd Annual MCHS Sr. Girls Invitational Tournament.
The Girls defeated Westlock’s RF Staples 59-40 Friday morning in their tournament opener but fell 63-42 to Beaumont, the province’s 3rd-ranked team, Saturday morning to put them in the bronze-medal game Saturday afternoon.
“The Lady Wolves held a two-point lead at the end of the first quarter, but Beaumont turned up the pressure and hit some key three-pointers to build a nine-point halftime lead,” said Coach Kent Lessard, adding Beaumont came out strong in the second half hitting three consecutive threes for a 20-point lead. “The Lady Wolves fought back [but] they could never get it closer than 15. Overall a good performance for the young Lady Wolves against a strong opponent.”
In the bronze-medal game, the Wolves faced Devon’s John Maland but came up 17 short at the end of four to take fourth place.
“It was a tie game at [the] half, but the Lady Wolves shooting went cold in the second half while the Devon girls could do no wrong,” Lessard said. “It was a disappointing finish to a strong tournament for the Lady Wolves.”
The final game was played at 6 p.m. Saturday. In that contest, the Wetaskiwin Sabres defeated the Beaumont Bandits 44-40 to take gold and silver respectively.
The MCHS Sr. Girls play this weekend at the M.E Lazerte tournament in Edmonton.