Taber Christian Lions come up one game short in 1A basketball provincials

By Garrett Simmons
For Taber Times

It was a championship weekend for the Coaldale Christian Titans, as the 1A boys basketball team proved it was the best team in the province.

At the Alberta Schools’ Athletic Association provincial tournament in Taber, Coaldale ran the table en route to a dominating gold-medal performance, punctuated by an 83-54 win in the final over the Taber Christian Lions.

Coaldale’s three-headed monster of Owen Senneker, Dimitri Veendendaal and Darren Mackay was simply too much for the Lions, as the Titans started off hot and never looked back.

Coaldale Christian built a 22-12 lead after the first quarter and extended the advantage to 45-22 at the half.

It was 67-35 after three quarters, as the Titans poured it on, and Taber Christian could not find any answers.

In the end, Senneker finished with 29, Veenendaal had 23 and Mackay chipped in with 20. Sebastian Hoekstra had 13 for Taber, while Maddox Kooiker added 11.

But it was a solid weekend overall for Taber Christian, which came in as the No. 3 seed.

The Lions had a first-round bye and then defeated No. 11 Gobind Sarvar by a score of 105-48. Hoekstra had 25 in the win, Jorge Sierra added 21 and Nicholas Unger chipped in with 10.

In the semifinal, the Lions upset No. 2 Olds, and it wasn’t even close, as Taber rolled to a 98-55 victory. Hoekstra had 25, Michael Giesbrecht added 23 and Sierra had 17. Kooiker added 10.

The host St. Mary’s Celtics won its opener 79-64 against E.H. Walker and then fell 92-72 in the second round to Worsley Central.St. Mary’s went to the consolations and beat Father George Redmond 72-69. The Celtics then dropped the fifth-place game 72-69 to Gobind Sarvar.

Taber Christian’s 2A girls took bronze, with the help of a few players from St. Mary’s, as the team started off with a 61-41 win over Rundle College. The team won a second-round match-up against High Level by a score of 56045 before the team fell 61-42 in the semis to Immanuel Christian.

Taber rebounded with a 59-48 win over Oilfields for bronze.

The W.R. Myers Rebels boys won the first game in 3A provincials by an 87-72 score over Holy Rosary but then dropped a 90-68 decision to Brooks. In the consolation round, Myers fell 80-59 to McCoy.