The JPII Sr. Boys Basketball team got 1st place in Meadow Lake this past weekend. (John Paul II Collegiate/Facebook)

By Austin Mattes

JPII Basketball

Crusaders bring home gold from Meadow Lake

Jan 20, 2025 | 4:18 PM

The John Paul II Collegiate Crusaders Senior Boys basketball team had a great start to 2025 this past weekend in Meadow Lake, going undefeated to bring home the gold, making it their first tournament win of the season.

In the first game, the Crusaders got tested early as they took on a familiar Melfort team.

“We’ve played Melfort twice now and we match up well with them. First half, we definitely had to shake off our Christmas break, we had a tough time taking the lid off the basket, but in the second-half, the boys got back into their flow and we were able to take control of the basketball game,” said Head Coach of the Sr. Boys team, Cooper Olson.

The Crusaders ended up beating Melfort 77 to 66 to move onto the next round.

In their second game, they got matched up against Moose Jaw Vanier and this time it didn’t take long for the team to get going and take the lead.

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“We came out a lot stronger in the first half in this game and we got control of the game early,” Olson said.

Throughout the rest of the game, the Crusaders continued to get points and pull away to eventually win the game by 20 points to advance to the finals.

For the finals, JPII then had to take on a good Meadow Lake team and similar to their first game, they saw some struggles in the beginning.

“We struggled a little bit to score early in the game, but defensively we were very solid throughout, so that kind of kept us in the basketball game,” Olson said.

Then as the game went on though, the Crusaders finally started to find their rhythm, resulting in a few good runs. By the time the third and fourth quarters came around, JPII had a convincing lead and went on to win the game to get first place and take home the gold.

Olson said one of the biggest reasons the team saw success this past weekend was because of their depth in the lineup

“Overall the boys played very hard and defensively were very solid. Definitely a bright spot for us was just our depth, one through 13, me and the other coach are very comfortable running out any guys in any situation,” he said.

The next tournament for the Sr. Boys is this weekend as they go to Melfort, and the team is hoping for the same result.

“The kind of the teams that are going to be in Melfort are the same we faced this weekend, so as long as we take care of our business and play our best brand of basketball, I expect a good result,” Olson said.

Apart from the Sr. Boys team, the JPII Junior Boys team also had a great showing this weekend as they won the silver medal at a tournament in Unity. In the tournament, they beat Rosetown and Unity to make it to the final where they lost in a close game with Lloydminster Comp.

Then the Sr. Girls were in Moose Jaw and finished eighth place out of a total of 16 teams.

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austin.mattes@pattisonmedia.com

On X: @AustinMattes