By Nathan Kanter

JP boys, Comp. girls triumph in weekend basketball tournament

Dec 18, 2016 | 5:15 PM

Two Battlefords teams stood out with perfect 3-0 records at North Battleford Comprehensive High School’s junior basketball tournament on the weekend. 

The John Paul II Collegiate junior boys continued their winning ways by downing the Comprehensive Vikings, Holy Rosary from Lloydminster and Meadow Lake’s Jonas Samson. 

They haven’t dropped a game yet in the early season. 

Head coach Nate Jurgens said he was impressed by his team’s ability to pull away late in games.

“They grinded out in the third and fourth quarter. [That’s] I find where we win the games,” Jurgens said. “That’s a credit to the boys. They just want to win. They want to win for each other and represent the school as best they can.”

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Jurgens also said paying additional to small details has brought the team success so far.

“Whether it’s boxing out for the rebounds, whether it’s making that extra pass,” Jurgens said. “I always tell them if you have a good shot but your teammate has a better shot, get them the ball.” 

Making those kinds of quick decisions can still sometimes be tough in the moment. Playing smart, as well as with more physicality, are a couple areas Jurgens noted could be improved on.

In order to help in the physicality department, Jurgens scheduled an exhibition game on Jan. 9 against Legacy Christian Academy, a basketball prep school from Saskatoon that has some older players. JP II has organized games against Legacy Christian Academy for the past four seasons.

“We always play their junior varsity, which is a Grade 9 [and]10 team,” he said. “It’s nice for the guys to see a little bit more of an up tempo game because there’s a big difference between a Grade 10 and a Grade 8 kid so it always give them a higher level of competition and hopefully they learn something from it.”

The other formidable team from the weekend was the Vikings junior girls team that went 3-0 as well, downing College Park, Meadow Lake and the JP II Crusaders in three lopsided games. They won by a minimum of 30 points each game. 

Head coach Kara Wilkinson was understandably pleased with her team’s effort this weekend.

“We were getting a lot of points off fast breaks and steals with our press,” Wilkinson said. “[Also,] our outside game was really good this weekend. A couple of players hit a few threes as well. So our perimeter shooting was good and like I said, lots of transition points.”

Wilkson explained that her team’s strong guards can make a world of difference, but that those guards are not the only players producing so effectively.

“Any time you have really strong guard play, you’re going to have the upper hand, and we do,” she said. “But what’s happening is that our other players are contibuting as well.

“Everyone is buying in.”

The junior boys Vikings team went 2-1 on the weekend, losing their only game to the Crusaders 65-39. 

Though the lost by over 20 points, Vikings boys head coach Jeff Gibson said they were more successful this weekend against the Crusaders compared to their last matchup two weekends ago at JP’s home tournament.

“We played much better against them this time,” Gibson said. “They shot a little better from the outside this time.

“Our boxing out was not strong even though we’ve been focusing on it in practice against JP Friday night. Then they boxed out like their lives depended on it [on Saturday]. It was actually quite fun.”

Gibson has been stressing the importance of boxing out again and again because in junior basketball, there aren’t many teams that have the ability to sink shot after shot on the first try. That is why getting the upper hand positionally in order to get rebounds is so important.

“If you don’t box out, they take a shot, they go collect their own rebound and then they get second chances and sometimes thir chances,” Gibson explained. “If you keep giving them chance after chance you’re sort of playing with fire a little bit and they eventually score. So that’s how important boxing out is.”

The final Battlefords team to take part in the tournament was the Crusader’s junior girls team, who beat Melfort but fell to Meadow Lake and the Vikings for a 1-2 record.

Coach Kristina Binette did see some improvement from her young team, however.

“We did do some good things but we still have some things to grow and improve on, which I guess is the nature of junior basketball,” Binette said. “Our rebounding was better this weekend than the previous weekend.”

One of their key players, Prisca Mbwebwe, was also hurt Friday evening, which mdae Saturday’s game a little bit tougher.

“That definitely affects what happens on Saturday, when your missing that key component of your team,” Binette said.

The junior basketball season is now done for the Christmas break but will continue in early January.

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.