Even though they didn’t hit the win column, the head coach of Notre Dame’s senior boy’s basketball team calls his club’s performance at provincials a big success.

“Overall, although we lost all three games at provincials, we only lost by a combined total of 13 points,” said Cougars Head Coach Stephen Merredew after the tournament wrapped up Saturday in Edmonton.

“We led for most of two of those games, proving that we can compete with any team.”

The Cougars, who went into the 4-A provincials as the 13th seed, opened play this past Thursday with a 66-61 loss to the third seeded Bishop Grandin Ghosts from Calgary.

Notre Dame led the Ghosts for most of the game, but just fell short of grabbing the win in the fourth quarter.

Dario Viveros led all Cougars in scoring with 32 points, including seven three pointers.

On Friday, the Cougars took on Okotoks’ Foothills Falcons, losing 86-80 in a game where they trailed for most of the contest.

Jordan Handel, with his second straight double-double, poured in 27 points to go with 10 rebounds to lead all Cougars.

The Cougars closed out the tournament on Saturday, losing a nail-biter, 75-73 in overtime to Grande Prairie, with Viveros posting 30 points to go along with Handel’s 27 points.

“We weren’t shooting the ball very well (against the Tomahawks) but the guys really went hard to the glass and as a team we had at least 20 offensive rebounds, which helped, but we also had lots of turnovers,” said Merredew.

“But our bench guys played really good defense. We will definitely be looking for the kind of veteran leadership that our graduating grade 12 guys provided this year when we hit the floor next season.”

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