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Crusaders senior girls win silver, junior boys win bronze

Jan 22, 2018 | 11:00 AM

Two John Paul II Crusaders basketball teams enjoyed successful weekends, with the senior girls team bringing home a silver medal and the junior boys bringing home a bronze this past weekend.

The senior girls fell in the finals of a Warman tournament to Wynyard by a 47-35 score, while the junior boys took down the Avalon Knights 50-48 in the bronze medal game of a tough Edmonton tournament.

The junior boys result was a big statement because the Big Dawg Classic featured premiere conference teams — the highest tier for school basketball in Edmonton —as well as tier-I conference teams.

The Avalon Knights that were beaten by the Crusaders in the third-place game play in the premiere conference.

“I think they’re realizing they can play with some very good teams if they play as a team,” Crusaders head coach Nate Jurgens said. “They’re starting to realize that if I maybe don’t have as good of a shot as the other guy, get the guy that’s open a better look, and work as a unit.”

The Crusaders also had to play without one of their top scorers, Mike Cruz, after he went down with an ankle injury.

But the team managed to fill the gap and step up in his absence.

“To lose him was a big hit for us,” Jurgens said. “Thankfully, we had somebody, Sean Nicha, off our bench, he came in and assumed the role and Marc Revet came in and assumed that backup point guard position as well. I think they saw their buddy go down and they wanted to win him the game I think and they did.”

The ankle injury is not serious, as Jurgens believes it should only take a couple more days to heal.

In their first game, JP II defeated Lakeland Ridge School by six points, after being down by seven to start the fourth quarter.

They lost in the semifinal by nine points to the eventual tournament champions from Vernon Barford, who consistently sit near the top of the premiere conference.

“I wanted to give them a challenge and see what some of these top teams look like in a larger city,” Jurgens said. “This tournament seemed to be a good fit for us. It had a couple premiere teams in it and tier-I teams, a nice mixture, and…for them to go and get to see those teams, that’s exactly what we wanted. We wanted three good battles and got three good battles.”

Jurgens stressed that the biggest positive of playing against stiffer competition was seeing first-hand what top teams need to do to win.

“We saw a lot of really good fundamentally sound teams that just do the little things right,” Jurgens said. “Whether it’s help defence, whether it’s having the hands in the passing lanes, communication, they got to see first-hand what some top teams do to be as good as they are.

“[And] some of my post players got an opportunity to play against some really big, strong, powerful players. For them to have that experience is only going to make them better.”

During the senior girls tournament, there was also a 3-point competition, where the trifecta of Sarah Morrison, Prisca Mbwebwe and Kaitlyn Yockey won for JP II. 

The junior boys Crusaders are in Lloydminster this weekend for the Hot Hoops tournament and will play their first game on Friday at 5:15 p.m. Saskatchewan time.

 

nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @NathanKanter11