The first home games for the St. Augustine senior Kings and Queens basketball teams may not have ended in wins, but players are seeing improvement in their game.
Both teams played the Central Alberta Christian High School (CACHS) Wednesday, Dec. 3 with the girls’ coach, Katherine Bergum York, saying her team showed vast improvements.
The Queens’ first game of the season was played at Pigeon Lake where the girls scored only one basket losing to Pigeon Lake 74-2. While they still lost 76-34 against CACHS last week, they scored more points and had a stronger presence on the court.
“I was extremely happy with how we played today,” she stated.
The Queens were ahead in the first quarter against CACHS but were unable to capitalize on points in the second half, which widened the point gap. Bergum York says with only two practices before the season, the Queens have an uphill battle in front of them. She’s working on developing players’ intensity.
“I need to put that pressure more on them so that they’re used to it,” she added.
This is her first time coaching the senior girls’ team and in an effort to improve her coaching skills, York says she is shadowing senior boys’ coach Adam Bowie.
For the Kings, the game started strong and they kept CACHS boys’ team scrambling to keep up. However, the Lacombe team was able to rally before the end of the second quarter to take a 10-point lead.
By the end of the game, Bowie says the Kings were approximately 20 points behind CACHS. Their biggest opportunity for improvement is in boxing out their opponents.
“It’s hard to compete with a team when we give them three or four shot opportunities,” said Bowie.
“The boys were a little upset with the loss,” he added.