Hapnot and Frontier Collegiate each won senior Zone 11 titles on the parquet court last week, punching their tickets to basketball provincials later this month.
Both boys’ and girls’ teams played in tournaments last weekend to earn their spots and glory. The Kweens played their tournament at Opaskwayak Cree Nation (OCN) and Oscar Lathlin Collegiate, hosted by the school’s team, the Ominacisak. The tournament would be run as a five-team pool play format, with the top two teams moving on to a winner-take-all final. The pool shrank to four teams when Norway House’s Helen Betty Osborne Ininiw Education Resource Centre (HBOIERC) Huskies dropped out of the tournament - all four of their scheduled games went down as 20-0 forfeit losses.
With three teams left to face, the Kweens ran the table, defeating the hosts 45-25, beating the Frontier Collegiate Raiders 52-32 and handing the Margaret Barbour Collegiate Spartans (MBCI) from The Pas a 45-32 loss.
Meanwhile, Frontier beat Oscar Lathlin 51-25, setting up a game with MBCI March 2 to potentially earn a spot in zone finals against Hapnot. The Raiders battled hard, but the Spartans won 43-20, making it an MBCI and Hapnot matchup for the banner.
The Spartans kept it closer than they managed in pool play, but the Kweens earned a 50-45 win and took their third straight senior zone banner. The senior girls will now head to Prairie Mountain High School in Somerset to play provincials March 14-16.
Meanwhile, seniors boys’ zones took place in Flin Flon, with all eyes on Frontier Collegiate and the host Hapnot Kings. Both teams entered the tournament in the top 10 of all Manitoba AA boys’ teams, with the Raiders entering zones ranked second in the province.
The Kings opened their zones with a 63-49 win over HBOIERC Feb. 29 in their five-team double-knockout tournament, while Frontier dispatched MBCI 72-49.
That put the Raiders and Kings on a collision course for a game Friday afternoon. The Raiders came out on top, winning 72-54 and putting Hapnot one loss away from a knockout. Meanwhile, HBOIERC stayed alive and eliminated Oscar Lathlin with a lopsided 105-22 beating - the Ominacisak had lost 77-17 to MBCI in The Pas Thursday, cutting the tournament down to four teams.
Frontier’s strong performance put them straight into the tournament finals. MBCI would play HBOIERC for a spot in the semifinals against the Kings, with the loser going home - the Spartans beat the Huskies in a hard-fought 70-66 game, setting up Hapnot and the Spartans to play with a zone final berth on the line.
While the Kings beat MBCI in the Kopper Crown Classic final earlier this year, the Spartans pushed hard and ultimately got the win by just one basket, ending the Kings’ season in a 70-68 heartbreaker.
That led to an MBCI/Frontier final and the Raiders poured on the offence even harder than they did in the teams’ first matchup, winning 103-62 to both win the zone banner and gain entry to provincials in Russell March 14-16.
The defeat signals the end of the line for eight Kings players, who are each in Grade 12 this year and have ended their high school basketball playing days. Chris Francoeur, Hendre Gouws, Hunter Hynes, Kenny MacDonald, Shea McCullum, Kenneth Morris, Bobby Smith and Carson Taylor have played their final games as Kings.
