CARDSTON — It wasn’t a good start to the provincial 4A girls’ high school basketball championships for the Hunting Hills Lightning Thursday.
The Lightning ran into the second ranked team in the province, Spruce Grove, and dropped an 81-39 decision.
Teighan Ponto and Brittani Blake had nine points each for the Lightning.
The Notre Dame Cougars are representing Central Alberta on the boys’ side, but the results of their meeting with Calgary’s Notre Dame weren’t available at press time.
Meanwhile in 2A play, both the Rimbey Spartans, on the girls’ side in Lethbridge, and the Central Alberta Christian Knights of Lacombe, in the boys’ division in Cold Lake, opened with a loss.
The Spartans were defeated 83-38 by Strathcona Christian despite 13 points from Jill Tennant.
The Knights got 13 points from Trent Nicolay and 10 from Jinwoo Hong in a 58-54 loss to Le Crete
In other boys’ action Prairie Christian of Three Hills downed J.R. Robson 84-26.
In the 3A playoffs in Camrose, the host Trojans beat Winston Churchull of Lethbridge 72-53 and Wetaskiwin downed St. Paul 76-48 on the girls’ side. In boys’ action, Churchiill downed Wetaskiwin while Camrose received a first round bye.
The 1A boys’ championship is in Hobbema and the host Ermanskin team lost 49-15 to Concordia.