Eagles look to ride momentum into provincial championship

By Lethbridge Herald on March 13, 2024.

Herald Photo by Justin Seward Herald photo by JUSTIN SEWARD Immanuel Christian Eagles Nyomi Heins attempts to drive the ball past FP Walshe’s Maizie Meech during 1A/2A south zone action last week at Lethbridge College.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Immanuel Christian Eagles senior girls basketball team will hope to ride the momentum of recent victories and a strong season into hosting the 2A provincial tournament this week.

The Eagles finished first in the league and won the South Zone banner last weekend.

“The south is always great basketball and so to come out with the South Zone banner is always a big boost, and to carry that momentum in is going to be I think great for the girls,” said Mike Greeno, Eagle head coach.

“It’s one thing to host that’s exciting, it’s another thing to host and… to have earned your spot in it too. So I think that’s going to be just really good for the girls and just kind of carry that positivity forward.”

Greeno gave the team some words to live going into this tournament.

“The season is a journey and how it ends doesn’t define how it went and we’re as prepared as we can be and that’s all that I can ask ,” said Greeno.

“ And going into these games, there’s no expectations that are going to increase as far as what I expect of our team because what they’re capable of is all that we need. So we’ll take it one game at a time starting with the quarterfinals on Thursday.”

Greeno thinks team selflessness will be the strength going into the provincial tournament.

“The ability that they have to support each other, (it) doesn’t matter if girls are starting (and) getting lots of minutes, or girls are encouraging from the bench, this team is one that just has really good chemistry and shows a lot of love and support to their teammates,” said Greeno.

“And so even in moments throughout the season where it has been challenging, the way they’ve kind of had each other’s backs, I think will be the thing that sets them apart and really helps them as they go into this weekend.”

Greeno said each game is a game that you got to be mentally prepared for because there’s no easy wins, especially come provincials.

“It’s going to be a great test for our group,” said Greeno.

 Greeno has seen the season as just a matter of him pointing the team in the right direction.

“It hasn’t been.. tactics as much,” he said.

“There’s just so much talent on the team this year. So it’s been a pretty dominant year for us and that just speaks to I think the work that the girls have done long before the season even started.”

Immanuel Christian will play either Oilfields or Calgary Christian in one of the quarterfinals today at 5 p.m.

Results can be found at asaa.ca under the Provincial Championships tab.