JP II junior boys team stands out in first tournament

“We are a gritty team. We like to push the pace, run the floor,” he said. “Our goal is always to outwork the opponent and that’s what these guys are trying to do for sure.”

Unity surprised last year when they defeated the Vikings in the semi-final of the junior boys district championships and almost beat the Crusaders in the final. But JP prevailed and took gold.

In this weekend’s rematch between Unity and JP, Jurgens said it was tight the whole way.

“We had a couple players step up – CJ Gozum from our team, he really kind of took the lead and pushed the pace,” Jurgens said. “Unity has got a really talented group of kids and it’s not going to be easy if we have the opportunity to face them again.”

Meanwhile, the Vikings junior boys team went 1-2 on the weekend, as they lost to the Crusaders and Unity.

Vikings head coach Jeff Gibson said he was very impressed with his team’s defence, but added a lack of making buckets in close was the theme of the weekend.

“We put ourselves in a position to get a lot of shots away, especially in close – lay-up shots, short shots – and we just missed, just about everything,” he said. “If we had had a little better shooting percentage, we would have been right in there with both Unity and JP right until the end.

“For our first tournament, that level of defence those guys played with, the intensity they brought on defence, was quite impressive…but if you don’t have any scoring, it’s pretty tough to win a game.”

The Vikings junior girls team also had a very successful weekend, winning all three of their games.

Head coach Kara Wilkinson has a mix of younger and older players on her team, but said overall it’s a very experienced squad that loves basketball. Three Grade 8’s are in her starting lineup, despite having five Grade 9’s on the team.

Wilkinson was pleased with how things went, but noted there’s always room for improvement.

“It went very well. We took care of a lot of the basics this weekend,” she said. “We need to have better passing [and] better transition defence.”

The Crusaders girls team went 2-1, with their only loss coming against the Vikings.

“We definitely did some good things on the court and after the opening weekend we know some of the things that we can continue to improve upon,” Crusaders coach Kristina Binette said on Monday. “One of the [main] things we can improve on is our rebounding, both offensively and defensively.

“The work ethic and the hustle of our team we were really impressed with.”

The tournament was the first of many to come this year for both the Crusaders and Vikings.

Districts are in mid-February and between now and then the teams will play roughly 20 games each.

There are no provincials in juniors, as the district championship are the final competition.

Nathan Kanter is battlefordsNOW’s sports reporter and voice of the Battlefords North Stars. He can be reached at Nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca or tweet him @NathanKanter11

by Nathan Kanter

JP II junior boys team stands out in first tournament

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