The Olds High senior girls basketball team are hoping to ride a recent wave of good results through the league playoffs this week and on into zones the following weekend.
After a slow start to the season in December, the team has started hitting its stride and recent league and tournament results are showing that improvement.
A win at the Three Hills tournament recently followed by a league win in Sundre and a solid fourth place finish at the Central Memorial 4A tournament on the weekend has the Spartans heading in the right direction as they prepare to host the always tough South Central Zone tournament on March 10-12.
“I am so excited and proud of these girls,” explained coach Karla Shultz. “It has been great to watch them improve and develop in such a short time.”
On the weekend, the girls won their opening game against Porter Creek of the Yukon behind 21 points from Sarah Delong. Later that night they lost to the home-standing Central Memorial Rams to put them into the third place game on Saturday against Bowness.
Shultz said the big Calgary school was a tough matchup for the Spartans and eased their way to victory, putting the local squad fourth for the weekend.
“It was a 4A tournament and we knew going into it that it was going to be a tough tournament with some great teams there,” she suggested.
In addition to Delong, players of the game included Sara Odersky and Terra Chalack while Desirae Lupino finished as tournament MVP for the black and gold.
Last Wednesday, the girls clinched second place in the Chinook's Edge South Athletic Association's senior varsity league with a 63-44 win over Sundre. It put them into Monday's league semifinal against third-seeded Didsbury while Carstairs – the only team to beat the Spartans in league – host Sundre. Both games are in Carstairs with the winners meeting Wednesday for the league title.
In other basketball action, the senior boys played Carstairs in Didsbury in one of two semifinals Monday night with the winner to face the Didsbury-Sundre winner in the league final Wednesday. All the semifinal games were played after deadline for the Albertan.
In junior varsity action the Spartan boys play Sundre in Didsbury tonight while the Olds girls team plays Carstairs in Sundre.
This weekend, the two junior high teams from OHS will be hosting the 4J zone tournament at the Community Learning Campus with games scheduled to begin on Friday afternoon and continuing through Saturday evening. There are seven boys' teams and six girls' teams taking part in the tourney.
