There's a new #2

Yes, there is a new #2 personal favourite event in the RDAC as a result of this past weekend. The PCA Sabres girls basketball team won the 2A Provincial title on home court Saturday night by defeating the top-ranked and 3-time defending champion Immanual Christian Eagles 78-70. It was a great game to be at the scoretable and running the clock for and the RDAC was packed and loud and noisy - and so it should be. It was the kind of evening the person the building is named after (Rick Down) would have just loved! And he would have been one of the loudest cheering!

Of course, if this is "the new #2" you probably want to know what my previous favorite events, now #3 and #4 at the RDAC were (if you don't you can stop reading now!).

Event #3 was the 1999 2A High School Boys Zone Final between the PHS (now PCA) Sabres and Siksika First Nation. The Sabres guys were the favorite to go to provincials and win it all - which they did. No one had heard anything really about the Siksika First Nation guys team until the zone tournament and didn't who or what to expect. It was a crazy game, played on half-court in the RDAC and early on the Sabres star guard, Ryan Reed, got pushed towards the scoretable and pretty much landed on my lap (I did not recall this part of the event until my in-laws brought it up this weekend as we were reminiscing). Siksika guard Troy Wolf Leg matched Reed shot for shot and their other players found ways to match the other Sabres score for score. The Sabres won 108-100 in regulation time. No, that is not a typo - 208 points in a 40 minute high school basketball game. The teams went back and forth and it was intense the whole way. Between the many Sabres fans and the boisterous crew from Siksika with their traditional drums, it was loud! I believe that was the most challenge the Sabres got on their way to the provincial title.

Event #4 was the first playoff game between the PBC Pilots and the Grant MacEwan College Griffins. Grant Mac was ranked first in the north and the Pilots had claimed fourth in the south by virtue of beating out Medicine Hat College and Briercrest College. It was the one and only time a Pilots team made the playoffs in ACAC and it was a foregone conclusion that the best-of-3 series would be a two game slaughter, and thus the first game was in Three Hills on a Thursday night before they headed back to Edmonton for game #2 on Friday night (and game # 3 if necessary, ha! ha!).

Well, the Lady Pilots forgot to read the memo... and they came out and shot the lights out. I think Deb Krause (now Adams) hit five three's in the first half alone and another two in the second half. When they weren't raining down 3's, Mary Fehr (now Amendt) was cutting in from the point guard position and dishing it off to any of her teammates for an easy two. The possibility of a great upset got greater and greater as the Pilots hung on and only fizzled in the closing moments as Grant MacEwan won 64-61. (They beat the Pilots by 50 points the next night to win the series).

By the way, if you want to know my favorite event at the RDAC (#1)... just leave a comment and ask!