Both the boys’ and girls’ Kodiaks basketball teams gave Creighton Community School reason to cheer last weekend. The school’s two senior clubs both went undefeated in out-of-town tournaments.
The Kodiaks’ girls team headed to Preeceville for a tournament Feb. 3-4, a town where the team had never played a tournament before.
Creighton started off playing the host Preeceville School Panthers, picking up a 58-28 win, then went even bigger against the Hudson Bay Composite High School Riders, getting a 61-17 victory. The school’s third and final game of the weekend was against the Martensville High School Royals, a high school with an enrollment of over 500 students - much larger than Creighton. Despite the numbers disadvantage, the Kodiaks would pick up a third and final win, getting a 41-33 win to end the weekend undefeated.
A week before, the Kodiaks took part in a tournament in Wynyard Jan. 27-28, losing their first game to the Indian Head Broncs but defeating the Middle Lake/Lake Lenore Avengers and the Foam Lake Panthers later in the weekend.
The girls’ squad will be playing in a North East Saskatchewan Schools Athletic Conference (NESSAC) tournament Feb. 15 in Nipawin.
Speaking of Nipawin, the boys’ Kodiaks squad took part in a tournament in the regional hub last weekend and also came away victorious, winning an eight-team tournament.
Frontier
Cranberry Portage’s Frontier Collegiate Raiders’ junior varsity boys came out on top in a tournament in Ste. Rose, finishing first after an all-northern final.
The Raiders opened the tournament by beating the Swan Valley Tigers 55-32, setting up a semi-final date with the Ste. Rose Celtics. Frontier eliminated the hosts with a 60-25 win, setting the stage for an all-northern final between the Raiders and The Pas’ Margaret Barbour Collegiate (MBCI) Spartans.
The Spartans would put up more points than they had against any other team that weekend, but Frontier’s offence proved to be too much. The Raiders took a 68-50 win, taking the tournament’s top spot.
Hapnot Collegiate’s JV Kings also hit the floor, but saw far less success. The Kings lost their first game to MBCI 70-31, setting up a matchup with Moose Lake’s Frontier Mosakahiken Grizzlies. The Grizzlies lost their first game by a score of 20-0, but they found their offence against the Kings, handing them an 88-38 loss. Pushing the Kings down into the seventh-place game, the Ebb and Flow Thunderbirds stepped on the Kings one last time, beating them 57-56 and putting the JV Kings in last place in the eight-team draw.
Frontier’s senior boys’ Raiders also were in action in a tournament in Gimli, first beating Riverton 59-20 before losing a high-scoring 75-60 game against Black River Anishinabe/Powerview in the semis. In a third-place game, Frontier took their frustration out on Warren, beating them down with a lopsided 82-47 win.
Hapnot
Hapnot Collegiate had an off-week with tournament competition, but the senior Hapnot Kweens held their own exhibition games with Frontier Collegiate. The two schools’ senior clubs played two games against each other Feb. 4 at the Hapnot gym.
Both games were won by the Kweens, first winning 83-20 Saturday morning, then putting up a 90-24 win in the afternoon.
Hapnot’s girls’ teams were both ranked in the provincial top 10 by the Manitoba High Schools Athletic Association (MHSAA) AA girls’ power rankings. The senior Kweens were ranked eighth for the past two weeks, while the junior varsity team is ranked ninth, down from eighth in mid-January. Both teams are the only northern Manitoba teams in the top-10 rankings.
The senior Kweens are set to go back to Swan River this weekend for the Swan Valley Invitational Tournament, while the senior Kings will be at the Clipper Varsity Boys’ Invitational tournament in Dauphin this weekend. The Kweens will play their first game in the eight-team, single-elimination tournament at 6 p.m. Friday against Minegoziibe Anishinabe School from Pine Creek First Nation.
