Economical.
That's probably the best word to use when it comes to Sir John Franklin's success at the NWT Power Corporation Senior Cager basketball tournament this past weekend.
The Falcons ended up in five finals and won four of them to come out as the big winner from the annual secondary scholastic hoops bazaar. Two of those banners came in the U15 girls division and they knocked off St. Pat's to do it both times.
Evelyn Straker coached both sets of winning teams and said she was confident about being there in the end for the Tier 1 banner but the Tier 2 banner was a bit of a crapshoot.
“There were a lot of community teams,” she said. “Hay River came with a good team and Inuvik had plenty of big girls so I had no idea how that would turn out.”
When it comes to the Tier 1 final, St. Pat's came out of the gate the better of the two teams at the start, going on an 8-0 run to start the game but that wasn't a complete surprise to Straker.
She said Danae Lafferty and Molly Gillard, both of who play on the high performance girls squad, would be tough to stop.
“I knew they would come out fast-paced and aggressive right off the bat,” she said. “Molly usually sets the tempo of the game and they caught us off-guard the start.”
A timeout was in order to settle everyone down and that's where Shaun Doherty came in, she added.
“They were hitting us with a strong defence and press but it wasn't anything we hadn't seen before,” she said. “Shaun drew up the plan and the girls went out and executed it. The girls weren't frazzled, they stayed calm, they're all level-headed players and they executed it.”
It seemed to work as the Falcons ended up taking the lead and wouldn't relinquish it, going away winners by a score of 41-26.
Even in victory, Straker was full of praise for Tobi Dusome, St. Pat's' coach, who made sure the Falcons would have to put up with a sticky defence.
“She made them strong defensively and that forced us to the outside,” she said. “Mali (Straker) and Mia (MacInnis) are great outside shooters, though, and Mali hit four three-pointers but St. Pat's was really good on defence and made us work for it.”
Sir John Franklin also won the U15 boys Tier 2 title thanks to a win over St. Pat's Black while the U19 girls downed St. Pat's for that banner.
The Irish didn't leave empty-handed as the school won two banners of their own thanks to wins over East Three Secondary of Inuvik in the U15 boys Tier 1 final and Cambridge Bay in the U19 boys Tier 1 final.
Fort Good Hope made sure the communities didn't leave empty-handed as Chief T'seleyhe School defeated Sir John Franklin Blue to win the U19 boys Tier 2 banner.
Dusome also served as one of the tournament whips and said there were plenty of exciting games over the course of the tournament.
“I've seen a lot of basketball this month and it's so nice to see basketball is healthy and well in the North,” she said.