Cougars remain top cats at GFS tournament

By Brady Grove, Times Reporter

Crowther Memorial Junior High School’s (CMJHS) Team Red Cougars beat Hanna’s J.C. Charyk Hawks 35-19 in the finals at the first-ever George Freeman School (GFS) girls’ basketball tournament on Feb. 8-9.
It was a close game in the first half, but the Cougars never slowed down in the second half and captured the title.
“We’ve really been working on running our offence and the girls executed it beautifully today,” said Cougars head coach Cheryl Davidson. “I thought they did a great job going to the hoop and playing a good defensive game.”
From the beginning, both sides brought their A-games with baskets being traded back and forth. The Hawks kept pace with the quick Cougars and matched them nearly shot for shot with the score 16-14 in favour of the Cougars after the second quarter.
According to Davidson, this was the first time they had played such a strong defensive team and they had to adapt to it.
But the Hawks were unable to maintain the high speed of the game heading into the second half which had been so important to their defensive success, because they only had seven players and the Cougars exploited this.
“We hung with them in the first half but in the second half we just fell apart a bit,” said Hawks head coach Ron Davies.
The Cougars never took their foot off the gas pedal, led by the speedy Tessa Galandy and the powerful Kathryn Penninga. The Cougars defense was a swarm and never gave the Hawks a chance on offense, limiting them to five points in the second half.
“We played really well on defense and it didn’t matter if we got a foul; we just let it go, got back and got the ball headed down the court,” said Galandy.
The Cougars have had a very a successful league season and went undefeated. According to Davidson, they are waiting to see if they will play a game for the championship of their league.

Falcons girls play in final tournament
The GFS host Falcons couldn’t outrun the Brooks Junior High School Runners as they lost 46-16 in the second-place game. The Falcons fought hard but couldn’t overcome the quick speed and transition of the Runners defense.
“I think our girls came out flat and tired, and didn’t play nearly as well as last night,” said Falcons head coach Colleen Neale.
The Falcons started off well, winning their first game 31-10 against St. Anthony’s School (Drumheller), which Neale saw as a huge success for the girls because they put so many of the concepts they’d been working on throughout the year into practice. The Falcons lost against the Hawks 20-9 to finish off the round robin in second place in their pool.
The Falcons are a very inexperienced team with only one girl having played basketball on a team at the start of the season. Sieanna Tomko was the lone player with experience on the team and she had a good game and generated offensive chances. Neale described her as one of the team’s leaders with good hands and basketball IQ.
“I think for this group of girls who had never played basketball before, their growth has been immense and we’re super proud of them,” said Neale.
The Falcons have one game remaining in their season.