The St. Augustine Kings senior basketball team may not have walked away with a win against the Central Alberta Christian High School (CACHS) Knights last week, but they are showing much improvement according to their coach.
The Kings hosted the Knights Monday, Feb. 2 with the game starting strong on both sides of the court. Things were looking good for the young Kings who had made quick turnarounds and equally strong blocks. However, the Knights have a more experienced and taller team, which helped them in the long run.
Despite losing by just over 30 points, 67-36 to CACHS, coach Adam Bowie said this game was a vast improvement over the previous contest against CACHS.
“Last time we played these guys, I think we lost by about 60 and we’ve come along way,” said Bowie.
His players drove the ball down the lane faster and worked to wrestle for every lose ball to get possession.
“Going in, we knew it was tough. These guys are probably the one or two seed for our area,” said Bowie.
“We just wanted to keep pressure on them and make them work for every point that they were going to get,” he added. “And I think we did that tonight.”
The team plays a zone defense and many of the players, mostly in Grade 10, are still getting used to this strategy. In Grade 9, teams play a man-to-man defense, explained Bowie. Out of the 15 players, two thirds are in Grade 10 with a few more Grade 11s and some Grade 12 players who have never played with Bowie before. “If we continue on, we can be pretty good next year,” said Bowie.
He was pleased with the team keeping a high intensity game for the full 40 minutes in all four quarters.
The Kings did well when they hustled for the ball and kept to their zone defense, said Bowie. It was at these times that the team sunk baskets and prevented shots against their own net.
“For the whole season I’ve been trying to instill hard work and it’s starting to pay off,” explained Bowie.
The Queens also played CACHS but were outperformed substantially, losing 88-10. The Kings’ next home game was Feb. 8 against St. Dominic Huskies.