The Chestermere Lakers boys’ basketball team was ranked No. 1 in the first Alberta School’s Athletic Association poll released on Dec. 14.
Three days later, the Lakers proved themselves with a 67-44 win over the Chargers in the championship final of the Bert Church Invitational tournament.
“It’s just a ranking at this point,” said Lakers’ head coach Erhayet Ozcan. “One thing we’ve told our guys is ‘nobody wins a banner for being ranked No. 1 in December.’ We have to be ranked No. 1 on the last weekend at provincials. But winning the tournament was good. It gives us a little bit of confidence.”
Chestermere defeated Calgary’s Lord Beaverbrook 109-48 in its tournament-opener, Dec. 15. On Dec. 16, the team played its closest game of its undefeated season thus far – an 81-75 win over Sturgeon Composite from Edmonton.
“We played Sturgeon Composite, which was a top 10 provincially ranked 4A team last year, and will be this year again, so beating them was exciting for the boys,” Ozcan said. “I thought Sturgeon was the first team we’ve seen this year that matched our team speed. We were surprised at first, but once we adjusted it went well.”
The win over Bert Church was closer than the score indicated, Ozcan said, as the home atmosphere for the Chargers was a great equalizer.
“Playing Bert Church in the final was a different challenge as well, with their crowd being as loud as it was,” he said. “We were at provincials last year, so we know how loud playoff games can get. This has that type of atmosphere.
Chargers’ head coach Mike Sera said he was still thrilled with the outcome, despite the loss at the team’s home tournament.
“I was very happy with that game,” he said. “Defensively we did enough to win that game. The unfortunate thing is offensively we just couldn’t put the ball in the hole. Baskets weren’t falling for us and we forced some shots.
“If that game was a little closer, who knows? If we could have got it down to 10 points, we maybe could have pulled it out.”
Bert Church won its first two tournament games – a 61-46 decision over Calgary’s William Aberhart and a 82-60 win over St. Albert to set up the final.
The Lakers and Chargers have yet to play in the Rocky View Sports Association schedule, but will meet Jan. 10 in Chestermere.
“We know we can play with this team,” Sera said.
“We can build on this. We held Chestermere to their lowest scoring output of the season. They’re usually up in the 80s and 90s. We see Chestermere and Cochrane in January and we know they’re the two top teams in our division. If we want to win a divisional championship, we know we have to go through both those teams.”
“It was another building opportunity for our team,” Ozacan said. “We try to find the challenge in every game we play.”
On the girls’ side of the draw, the Bert Church Chargers won the consolation final with a 53-46 defeat of the Chestermere Lakers.
