By Nathan Kanter

Crusaders busy in season opening tournament

Nov 28, 2016 | 9:00 AM

The JP II Crusaders senior girls basketball team had no shortage of playing time in their season opening home tournament over the weekend, playing four games in two days.

They won two and lost two, beating LCBI and Meadow Lake while falling to Melfort and Unity.

They played more than any other team because only seven schools could make it to North Battleford, so the Crusaders ended up playing both sides of the bracket.

Overall, head coach Bruce Yockey was pleased with how things went for his young team.

“It was good,” he said on Saturday. “They held their own and there were a lot more positives to the weekend than negatives for sure. The biggest thing is just conditioning now.”

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On Saturday, they were tested with three games in a span of seven hours. It started with a 10 a.m. contest against Melfort, then a 2:30 p.m. consolation game against Meadow Lake, which was immediately followed up with another 4 p.m. game against Unity.

Less teams meant a very difficult back-to-back on Saturday, which is partly why Yockey pointed to conditioning as an area to improve on.

“Our girls are dead tired,” he said after the team’s final game against Unity. “We expended a lot of energy playing a good Melfort team this morning and we had a good battle with Meadow Lake too so we’d have put up a much better fight here if we had some rest but it is what it is. It’s early and it’s all good.”

This year’s Crusaders team is more than just young; it’s really young.

Seven Grade 10s are on the roster, plus two juniors were brought along over the weekend just for the experience.

“They were overpowered a little bit,” Yockey said. “The Grade 10s are adjusting to the size and strength and it’s a quicker game than they’re used to.”

But Yockey noted they held their own.

Against Melfort in the Saturday morning game, they began slow but did get the game to within 10 at one point.

“We gave up a lot of easy baskets today because our feet were slow,” Yockey said. “Melfort played a really good pace this morning. I give our kids credit though, we got behind early but they didn’t quit. They battled back.”

Because of the team’s youth, the schedule for the season was carefully picked to ensure there is a good balance of stronger and weaker opponents. JP II has entered in some tournaments where they’re favoured and some where there will be stiff competition, to ensure they get some wins but that they also learn what it takes to compete in the 4A division.

“It’s really going to be a learning year for us,” Yockey said. “We really want to get our 10s some good court experience and kind of build for the future here.”

The basketball season goes all the way to mid-March, when Hoopla – the provincial tournament – takes place.

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.