There's something to be said about the evenness of the Junior Cager basketball tournament.
No one school really dominates the banner count and that was the case again this year.
Five schools – all from Yellowknife – walked away with a banner of some sort once the curtain came down on the 2020 edition of the tournament on Sunday.
The only school which won more than one was William McDonald as the Wildcats claimed the Grade 7 and Grade 8 girls titles. Range Lake North and Weledeh shared the Grade 6 boys and girls titles respectively while St. Pat's won the Grade 8 boys crown and St. Joe's downed William McDonald for the Grade 7 boys banner.
James McCarthy/NNSL photo
The banner for St. Pat's was virtually assured as it was Irish vs. Irish in the final; one team defeated Ecole Boreale of Hay River in one semifinal while the other Irish outfit beat William McDonald.
Each team had student coaches with Rob Hart acting as the staff liaison for both teams.
Hart said the one thing which impressed him the most was the enthusiasm of both teams.
“We have a crew here that just loves playing basketball,” he said. “The final wasn't too close but they're still a good group of kids.”
Both teams met in the round-robin and that contest was a lot closer with the team known as St. Pat's Green coming out on top, 41-40, over St. Pat's White.
One thing Hart preached to his players was not running up the score, even if they had the chance to, and he said that game plan was repaid by a comment from a parent from an opposing school.
“That was the biggest moment for me,” he said. “We would get a big lead and then work on plays or let the other team come down court and have chances. I always preach that to the kids – it's not about the banners, it's about giving the kids a chance to play and I think we did that really well all tournament long.”
William McDonald's win in the Grade 8 girls division was also guaranteed but not without quite the battle from St. Pat's in the semifinal. The division had just three teams in it – two from William McDonald and St. Pat's – and all three teams ended up tied in the win/loss column. That meant points for was the tiebreaker and William McDonald Blue came out on top in that to earn a bye through to the final.
William McDonald Red had a three-point lead late in the fourth quarter of the semifinal, only to have Jaci Dusome of St. Pat's drill a three-pointer in the dying seconds to tie the game and send it into overtime. William McDonald Red, though, was able to hang on in bonus basketball time to move on.
The Grade 6 division was all at Sir John Franklin Gymnasium and once again featured a 3-on-3 format with 10-minute games all the way through.
Mike Mansfield, who was the division's co-ordinator as well as the tournament's whip, said each school that took part was in with a chance to win once the playoffs began.
“We had Mildred Hall, Weledeh, Range Lake North, St. Joe's and Allain St. Cyr all with teams in the playoff brackets,” he said. “Some of the schools had up to five teams entered and so it was a real good mix.”
One of the positives Mansfield pointed out was there were no blowouts at any point.
“I think the biggest gap we had in the playoffs was four points,” he said. “That keeps things exciting when that happens.”
Because the games were 10 minutes long, that meant plenty of games and plenty of chances to be part of the game for the players, he added.
“Each team would have had a minimum of seven games,” he said. “The 3-on-3 format encourages a lot of touches of the ball and that helps with the development. In 5-on-5, you sometimes see players not getting a lot of chances to touch the ball so this format works at the younger ages.”