The basketball season started right for St. Augustine School’s senior basketball squads.
The Kings and Queens won their first game of the season Dec. 5 at home against the Innisfail Cyclones. The Kings won a solid 76-51.
Coach Adam Bowie said the majority of players are from Grade 10 and that game was their first introduction to senior basketball.
“They have been used to playing against mostly Grade 8 to 9 players from last year. So (it) was a huge learning experience,” said Bowie.
The four returning players had to step up their intensity and mentoring to help the rest of the team focus, and it was that intensity that helped the Kings overall.
“Even though they started slow on the ‘O’ end, they kept up the pressure on the ‘D’ end,” explained Bowie. “With that said, the boys perseverance to keep going and trust in what they have been going over in practice was also a big deal last night.”
The challenge for the Kings will be communication and working as one unit, Bowie said. “Success to us will not be decided on our win-loss record, but rather how we come together as a team.”
Queens
The Queens had a strong game winning 47-27.
For his first season coaching senior girls basketball, coach Ryan Roos was pleased with the performance (he was coach for the junior girls for the last three years).
There will be many firsts for Roos this year as he doesn’t know what the league’s teams are like compared to the junior teams they’ve played against. That being said, he looks forward to the challenge and the help of assistant coach Kevin Prediger.
What went well? “The biggest thing was our defense.”
“We just taught them the system four days ago and they absolutely killed it,” Roos said, of the one-three-one zone defense.
On top of that the Queens were smart in their shot selections. The challenge in the game was turnovers and fouls, said Roos.
Although once coaches spoke to the team after the first quarter, the Queens played a clean game. His goal will be to play strong games and focus on zones.
Battle of Ponoka
Read More: Basketball Battle of Ponoka set for two high schools
Read More: Ponoka Secondary Campus Broncs win against Penhold
The Kings and Queens next games are in Ponoka against Ponoka.
The Ponoka Secondary Campus Broncs dropped down to a 2A school this year for basketball, which is the same league St. Augustine is in.
This is believed to be the first time that the senior teams will play against each other and the contest is expected to be an exciting one with lots of fan support.
jeff.heyden-kaye@ponokanews.com
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