Put up one more banner in the Hapnot gym. The junior varsity Kweens basketball team picked up a victory in last weekend’s Zone 11 tournament, putting them into the chase for a provincial title.
The Kweens played host to the tournament, originally meant to be a five-team tournament - Cross Lake Mikisew pulled out of play earlier in the week, turning the event into a four-team playdown. The four squads - the Kweens, The Pas’ Margaret Barbour Collegiate (MBCI) Spartans, the Oscar Lathlin Collegiate Ominacisak from Opaskwayak Cree Nation and Norway House’s Helen Betty Osborne Ininiw Education Resource Centre (HBOIERC) Huskies - would play each other in a pool instead, with the top two teams reaching a winner-take-all final.
The Kweens ran roughshod through the pool, winning each of their games by more than 50 points. Hapnot opened the tournament with a 75-8 win over Oscar Lathlin, where the Kweens scored more than 50 points before the visitors got on the board. From there, the Kweens took two more big wins, beating the Spartans 71-17 and the Huskies 63-11 to confirm their first place in the pool and a spot in the final.
Their opponents would be the Spartans, who despite eating a lopsided loss to Hapnot, beat both Oscar Lathlin and HBOIERC, eking out a 42-41 win over the Huskies to finish second.
MBCI put up more of a fight in the championship game than they did in the pool, sticking around and staying within single digits at halftime - Hapnot led 29-20 at half.
From there though, the Kweens took over, scoring 18 third-quarter points while the Spartans only got five. The Kweens sealed it in the fourth quarter, at points doubling up MBCI before taking a 63-35 victory and the Zone 11 title.
The Kweens will head to provincials in Winnipeg next week, hosted by Springs Christian Academy March 7-9. Going into the tournament, the Kweens are ranked as number six in the province, according to the latest Manitoba High Schools Athletic Association (MHSAA) rankings.
The JV Kings were also in zone action last weekend in The Pas, playing their tournament at MBCI. Also playing in pool play against the same teams whose JV girls’ teams headed to Flin Flon, the Kings beat Oscar Lathlin 62-50 and HBOIERC 64-37, but lost to MBCI 43-33, taking a 2-1 record and finishing second in their pool.
That clinched a spot in the final, where the Kings would play the undefeated Spartans. MBCI would stay undefeated, knocking off the Kings 56-32 in the final, taking the banner to The Pas and ending the Kings’ season.
Senior basketball zones will take place this weekend, with Hapnot hosting the varsity boys’ tournament. The senior Kings will take on six other northern teams in the tournament, starting Feb. 29 with a matchup against MBCI at the Hapnot gym, starting at 6:30 p.m.
In the latest MHSAA varsity boys rankings, the Kings are ranked eighth in the province and are the second-highest seeded northern team - the Frontier Collegiate Raiders from Cranberry Portage are the highest-ranked squad from the north, seeded second in the province. The senior Kweens are ranked fourth in the province and are the highest-ranked northern team.
