Carpenter boys’ basketball falls short in home tourney final

Jan 15, 2018 | 1:00 PM

Even though the Carpenter High boys’ basketball team lost the championship match at their home tournament this weekend, they’re still having a great season so far, according to head coach Navanga Burke.

The team hosted the 46th annual Northern Lights Basketball tournament, with teams from Porcupine Plain, Prince Albert, Warman, Regina, North Battleford, Tisdale and St. Brieux attending.  The teams are competing in the 4A conference in the Saskatchewan High School Athletics Association.

The weekend started off strong for the Spartans, winning against Tisdale Friday afternoon. Saturday was also a busy day of basketball for the team, as they hosted John Paul II Collegiate from North Battleford, and they were victorious again on their home court. That win put the team in the final against St. Brieux, and despite a hard fought game, the Spartans fell short by only four points, losing the game 71-67.

Burke said he felt the weekend was an overall success.

“We ended up 2-1 for the weekend,” said Burke. “I wish we could have finished it off and went 3-0, but we can’t really worry about that… we just have to put back on our work boots and prepare for the next tournament.”

He said overall the season has been going well, as the team is currently sitting at nine wins and three losses and is making lots of progress.

“For the most part, when we’re firing on all cylinders, we’re really hard to beat,” Burke said. “One thing we’ve been focussing on is having that never-give-up attitude. Even though we lost that last game, they could have easily packed it in and lost by 40, but they fought back tooth-and-nail and brought the score back.”

He said all team members played well, but forward Jace Timmer and guard Sam Bear stood out in the final.

“For a slow start, Jace played fairly well,” he said. “Once he got going he was unstoppable in the low block. I thought Sam Bear played fabulous. All of our guys did well, but those two stepped it up. They were rebounding the basketball, and Sam played really good defence.”

The team is heading to Melfort this weekend for their next tournament of the season.

 

 

 

kathy.gallant@jpbg.ca  

On Twitter @ReporterKath