INUVIK
Inuvik was the big winner last weekend at the Yellowknife Cager basketball tournament, bringing home two championship banners and making a deep run to the semi-finals with the junior boys team.
The East Three Secondary School U-19 senior boys team used strong defence and quick transitions to put up points and lead them to the school's first title in at least 20 years, beating St. Patrick High School of Yellowknife 61-56.
The team pushed the ball up the court in quick transition after rebounds in order to get quick points, said guard Cody Greenland. Doing so kept St. Pat's from setting up on defence and slowing down the pace of the game.
"We worked the ball quickly and got our shots off," he said.
Tournament MVP Liam Larocque played a strong game under the basket, aggressive in rebounding and putting back points in dominant fashion.
"I played big," he said. "I'm a big rebound guy, the garbage man."
Coach William Logan said the team has been built around the defensive scheme of helping the helper -- when one guy gets beat, another player steps in to stop the shot or to close up lanes to the net.
"It's been our plan for three years," he said. "We don't shoot the strongest, so we worked on our strengths. The boys will tell you it's all about our defence."
Coach Allan Gillis said he knew going into the tournament the team needed to have an edge, and being a defence-first, offence-second style coach, he said implementing a number of defensive looks was crucial to dealing with Yellowknife teams built
on strong shooting and ball control.
"Being fundamentally sound in our defence and playing an aggressive style of basketball was what we wanted," he said.
The junior girls team brought home the single A banner after a decisive win against Fort Smith in the final. The girls had played their first four games in the double-A division but were unable to put up a win.
Chris-Lin Hvatum said despite the lop-sided scores in the first four games of the tournament, she said the squad plugged away hard on the court to improve their games each time, resulting in the banner coming back with them to Inuvik.
"We learned a lot and got better," she said. "Our dribbling and ball movement improved with each game."
Mackenzie McDonald said despite the scores, the team never stopped hustling and were happy with how far they came from the first game all the way to beating Fort Smith in the final.
"We were happy we won but the fact we put the effort in made it that much sweeter," she said.
Hvatum said the final was their best game all season.
"We started strong and finished strong," she said. "We ran hard and there was a lot of movement and a lot of cutting."
Coach Steve Wagar said the team never gave up, even when down by 20 or 30 points in some of the previous games of the tournament.
"They played so strong and you could tell by the result of the final," he said. "I couldn't be more proud. They left it all on the court."
The junior boys team came up on the end of a 20-point semi-final loss to eventual champs St. Pat's, but Nick Badgley said they played hard and were pleased with their results in the weekend tournament.
