TCHS Lions battle tough and come up bronze at ASAA 2A championship

Submitted by Carolyn Siemens

The Taber Christian High School Lions attended the ASAA 2A Girls Basketball Championships hosted by Rundle College in Calgary this past weekend.

The tournament started off on Thursday with opening ceremonies featuring guest speakers and entertainment. The Lions had their play-in game later that afternoon against the host Rundle College. It was packed and loud in the gym for the home team which was fun to play in. We had a tight first half with Rundle as they played us tough and they have a couple really great three point shooters. At half time we were only by six points and knew we had to have a good third quarter. The third saw us come out strong and we were able to gain ten points against them which was great heading into the last quarter of the game. The game ended with us up by twenty with a 61-41 win.

It was great to take the win in the first game, as last year we lost the first game at Provincials.  Our goal was to ensure a win in the first round and we met our goal and secured to be top eight. Scoring in the game was Iya Hoekstra with 13 points, Irena Kuyper with 12 and McKenzie Siemens added 11. On the boards Kuyper led with 18, Logan Meier grabbed 17 and Hoekstra had 14 as well as eight assists. Siemens earned player of the game.

We played in our quarter final game later that night against the third ranked High Level team.  We had a good start to our game against High Level ending the first half 37-20. Our girls worked hard on defense, Siemens had six steals, and we were able to control most of the game.  They came out strong on us in the fourth quarter and out scored us by 15 but thankfully we were able to hold on and take the win 56-45 guaranteeing us top four. Hoekstra and Kuyper both had 17 points and Katelyn Bennan added eight. Kuyper was a beast on the boards both offensively and defensively grabbing 10 each earning herself player of the game, Hoekstra had 15 rebounds. Meier was awarded with an ASAA Sportsmanship pin for the game.

On Friday we played in the semi final against Immanuel Christian; we had really hoped to be on the other side of the bracket but we ended up on their side. It did give us a chance though to have a better game than we had at zones against ICHS. We ended up having three really great quarters against them and were only down by six heading into the fourth quarter. In the fourth we let them get away from us though as they outscored us by eleven. It was a combination of ICHS just being so strong, especially in the key, we had a hard time getting rebounds throughout the game as well as they play a really physical game and we got tired. Kuyper also went down hard on her knee and was out for the last quarter which made us even smaller in the key. Hoekstra led with 13 points, and Kuyper, Schmitt and Siemens each added six. Kuyper led on the boards with nine. Hoekstra earned play of the game.

The loss put us in the bronze medal game against the Black Diamond Drillers on Saturday.  Heading into the game we really wanted a Provincial medal and the girls had that as their goal.  We were down two players though in the game as Kuyper was out with an injury and Kennedy Planger was at volleyball. We came out and played really strong defense against them and we were able to keep our lead throughout the game taking the bronze medal in a 59-48 win.  Hoekstra had a great game scoring 30 for us with Meier adding nine and both Bennan and Nyla DeBoer adding seven. Hoekstra led the boards for us with 20 rebounds, Meier had 17 and Siemens grabbed seven. Meier earned player of the game. We were really happy to represent the South Zone in the Provincial Championship and to bring home the bronze medal, it was a really great way to end the season.