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Crusaders hosting senior boys basketball tourney

Jan 27, 2017 | 5:49 AM

The JP II Crusaders senior boys basketball team is hosting its home tournament, where eight teams will converge on the school this weekend.

This year, unlike last year, the Crusaders are very young, with just two Grade 12s on their squad. Last season, they had eight or nine.

Head coach Shalen Fox said that means he has had to be more patient as a coach.

“As they are Grade 10, you give them a little bit more leeway to learn from their mistakes,” Fox said. “The two Grade 12s, the expectations are higher for them.”

Fox has already seen progress.

“We were in Melfort on the weekend and we were consolation winners,” he said. “We lost two close games to Meadow [Lake] earlier in the season by 11 and five points. This time around, we were able to beat them by five points.

“We’ve lost a lot of close games by 1-10 points – all of our games – and we’ve won some close ones now. So we’re turning that corner of winning the close games.”

One of the reasons things are starting to turn around is team depth.

“More players are able to play in certain situations now whereas before that depth wasn’t there,” Fox said. “Now, pretty much everybody is contributing on the team so it makes it a lot easier for players to rest up and then get back up there rather than conserving their energy.

“This is probably the hardest working team I’ve had.”

This tournament is a highlight for the season, as they get to play a minimum of three games at home. The team has had some exhibition games at home already this year, but a tournament is different.

“It’s going to be fun for the boys to play at home,” Fox said. “Your home tournament is always exciting.”

The Crusaders first game is Friday at 2:30 p.m.

The NBCHS Vikings will not participate in this tournament, as they compete in the 5A division, where the Crusaders are in the 4A division. The JP tournament will also include teams in 3A and 2A.

 

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.