Spartans fall in league play, now prepare for zones

Tyler Lowey
Times Reporter

 

Just like they have throughout the Foothills Athletic Council season, the Holy Trinity Academy Knights stormed their way to a pair of championships over the weekend.
The Strathmore High School Spartans senior men’s squad entered the finals down two starters, but brought the energy early.
Unfortunately, the deeper, taller Knights squad pulled away to the 85-48 victory March 4 on home turf, capping off an undefeated season and defending their title.
“We were missing our two leading scorers, to lose them from the lineup was a big loss,” said Spartans head coach Matt Laslo.
The Spartans went punch-for-punch with the Knights in an intense opening quarter. Mackenzie Bain opened with a three-pointer and a finger roll at the rim, as the Spartans trailed 14-13 after one.
“It’s nice to see us bring a lot of intensity from the start of the game all the way to the end,” said Laslo. “We challenged our guys, knowing that we were hurt. We wanted to make Holy Trinity earn this and I think we did a good job of that.”
From there, the Knights started to net some threes and sliced the Spartans with pretty back-door passes, outscoring them 23-6 in the second frame.
Bain led the Spartans with 20 points on 7-of-24 shooting.
Kashtin Running Rabbit was throwing all of his low-post moves at the Knights and Connor McBean tried creating space for his mid-range jumper, but both struggled with touch around the tin. McBean finished with six points and Running Rabbit returned after rolling his ankle in the second quarter, to finish with seven points and four rebounds.
The Spartans were without three starters, in John Le May, Ryan Edwards and Caleb Funk. Laslo hopes to have all hands on deck as his school hosts the South Central Zones, running March 8-11.
The Spartans tipped off their tournament March 8 against the Canmore Collegiate High School Crusaders (result not available as of press time). Prior to tip off, graduating members of the senior girls and guys’ teams were honoured with a memory token and had a small speech read about the player.
The Knights senior girls avenged their FAC finals loss last year to the Foothills Composite High School Falcons, by downing the Strathmore High School Spartans 74-46.
Both guys and girls’ teams wrapped up the season with a perfect record.
The Knights came out firing in the first quarter with a 12-0 run, ended by a Pacey Strangling Wolf corner three. She went on to finish with 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting, to go with two blocks.
When the Spartans rolled their bench out in the second quarter, the Knights capitalized, outscoring their opponent 18-8 in the second frame.
Around the midway mark of the third quarter, there was an exchange from one of the coaches on the Knights’ bench and one of the Spartans on the floor. Flagrant fouls were assessed, but both Spartan coaches declined to comment about the final or the incident following the game.
Brianna Kennedy finished with 14 points and Allie Davidson recorded eight points, highlighted by a running floater at the buzzer, to go with four rebounds.
The Spartans Zone tournament got underway March 8 at their home gym (result not available as of press time). They got to take part in the senior ceremony and play their opening game at home, before heading out for the remainder of their zones at Highwood High School.