By Martin Martinson

Hoops and hardwood

JPII pick up gold, bronze in busy weekend for school’s basketball teams

Feb 4, 2019 | 4:58 PM

It was a big weekend on the hardcourt for John Paul II Collegiate, as three of the school’s four basketball teams were in action at various tournaments around the region.

Both the junior boys, and junior girls teams were scheduled for a tournament in Meadow Lake at Jonas Samson Junior High, but due to weather concerns, the girls’ portion of the tournament was cancelled.

The Crusaders junior boys, however, continued their scorching hot play, remaining undefeated on the year and a perfect six-for-six in tournament play this season, thanks to another three-game sweep of their opposition in dominating fashion.

After defeating Lloydminster’s College Park Cobras by about 70 points, the junior boys followed up their opening victory with an encore performance against the hometown, Jonas Samson Stingers, demolishing the opposition this time by a 50-point margin.

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In the gold medal game, the Crusaders’ junior boys faced their toughest challenge yet, and perhaps toughest of the season, winning by 11 points over the Bishop Lloyd Lancers to solidify yet another gold medal showing for their program.

Nate Jurgens, head coach of the junior boys, said what’s really impressed him about this year’s team has been members’ ability to continually improve, and develop winning habits through hard work in practice.

“All the things we’ve been working on throughout the season in practice and have continuously mentioned to [the team], they’re starting to do those things without even having to be told,” Jurgens said.

“Whether it’s finding that extra pass, or just communicating on the court and having their hands up defensively, they’re really just really starting to string it all together.”

This weekend the Crusaders will host the Battle West District Championship to close out the junior season. With Friday featuring play-in games, and JPII holding a bye, the home team will play their first game on Saturday, Feb. 9.

The senior girls Crusaders added to JPII’s trophy case, taking home the bronze at their tournament in Melfort. Submitted photo: Bruce Yockey

The Crusaders senior girls team also managed to pick up some hardware on the weekend, winning bronze in Melfort.

After defeating P.A. Carlton 80-33 in their opening game, the Crusaders drew Melfort in their follow-up contest, one of the top teams in the region.

Although the Crusaders ultimately fell 47-28 in the semifinals matchup, the team was quick to bounce back in the bronze medal game, as the senior girls would defeat Meadow Lake 32-31 to clinch the bronze in a nail bitter that would go right down to the final buzzer.

Now with a 10-6 record on the season thanks to the weekend performance, Bruce Yockey, head coach of the senior girls team, said he saw improvement on both sides of the ball from the club as the season progressed.

“I think the biggest improvement we’ve made is that we’ve been dealing better with pressure the other team has put on us,” Yockey said. “That and our defence; we used to play just strictly man-to-man, and now we play zone from time to time and it’s really helped reduce the number of points we’ve given up.”

The Crusaders senior girls will return to action this weekend for one of their final tournaments of the regular season at North Battleford Comprehensive High School, with regionals in mid-March quickly approaching.

JPII Collegiate’s senior boys team faced a number of injuries and had to overcome adversity at their tournament in Lloydminster over the weekend. Submitted photo: Shalen Fox

The senior boys team, which travelled to Lloydminster, finished 1-2 on the weekend, and now sits just above .500, with a 13-12 record on the year.

After dropping their opening game to Lloyd Comprehensive High School by a 13-point margin, the team responded in nice bounce back fashion to defeat Sherwood Park. In the end, the senior boys wound up falling to Holy Rosary in the conciliation round, to wrap up a weekend that saw the team confronted with adversity throughout.

“The injury bug hit us hard, head coach Shalen Fox said. “We normally carry 11 guys, and [by the end] we had three sprained ankles and a pretty banged up nose.”

While unfortunate at the time, the onslaught of injuries did open up some additional opportunities for some of the younger players to pick up valuable experience.

“The two Grade 10’s got to play some significant time, and a couple of guys got to come off the bench and play significant minutes, so that was good to see,” Fox said. “I think all these players getting extra playing time is only going to benefit us moving forward.”

With just under 10 games remaining in the season, the Crusaders will return to action this weekend as the team travels to Legacy Christian Academy in Saskatoon. In the first weekend in March, the team will travel across town to the North Battleford Comprehensive High School for the team’s final tee-up prior to regionals.

Martin.Martinson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: MartyMartyPxP1