Whitehorse Daily Star

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Photo by Dustin Cook

SUPER HOOPS SHOWDOWN – (Left) Porter Creek Rams player Landon Busner dribbles up the court during Super Hoops semifinal action Thursday evening at F.H. Collins Secondary School; (Right) F.H. Collins Warriors player Derek Chung leaps for a rebound during basketball action against the Rams.

Super Hoops finals set for tip-off tonight

Undefeated seasons will be put on the line tonight at the Super Hoops senior high school basketball finals.

By Dustin Cook on February 16, 2018

Undefeated seasons will be put on the line tonight at the Super Hoops senior high school basketball finals.

The two victors from Thursday’s semifinal victories will be looking for the upsets over the F.H. Collins Secondary School girl’s team and the Vanier Catholic Secondary Crusaders boys. Both are looking to repeat as Super Hoops champs and stay undefeated against the other two Yukon schools this season.

The girl’s Crusaders team punched their ticket to tonight’s final after a 70-29 semifinal win over the Porter Creek Secondary School Rams at F.H. Collins Thursday evening.

The Crusaders, who went 2-2 on the season with both losses coming to the Warriors, will be looking to build off the strong performance last night to an upset over the dominant Warriors squad.

Head coach Jane Londero said they hope to build off their most recent game against the Warriors last week in which the Crusaders fell 84-55.

“We had a really good game against them last week,” she said following the win over the Rams. “The girls played really well and so we’re really excited about playing them.”

“We’re hoping we can bring it closer and obviously we’d like to win, but we know they’re quite a strong team as well.”

Londero said the Warriors cruised to 84 points in their last match-up due to an abundance of turnovers and they will need to limit their turnovers to stay in the game.

“We also weren’t shooting as many three-pointers last time so we’ll be trying to increase on that,” she said. “So I think it will be a really good game.”

The semifinal against Porter Creek was a good performance for the team, Londero said, and both teams challenged each other right to the end.

“Porter Creek has had problems scoring, but they’re always coming back at us so we can’t let down at all,” she said.

It was the Crusaders’ third victory against the Rams this season who will now be preparing for the Yukon Championships at the beginning of March.

Toward the end of the game, the Rams bench put all their Grade 12 players on the court to end their Super Hoops career.

Londero said her team is prepared for their rematch with the Warriors – their third game against the team in three weeks.

“The first one was really bad, the girls were mentally not there,” Londero said. “They were overwhelmed. Now they’re like OK, enough of that.

“Last year F.H. walked away with it and I think the last time we played them they were a bit more challenged.”

But will it be enough to take down the Warriors who haven’t been defeated in the last two seasons and on their home court?

Action tips off at 5 p.m. at F.H. Collins.

On the boy’s side, it is the Crusaders of Vanier who are the Goliath in this matchup.

They have won six consecutive Yukon Championships and continued their undefeated streak from last season.

They will be taking on the Rams who defeated the Warriors team Thursday 76-59.

The Warriors got out to a quick lead, but the more experienced Rams team took control of the game in the second quarter and were strong defensively to take an insurmountable lead.

The Rams will be looking to avenge a Super Hoops loss last season to the dominant Crusaders.

The Warriors went winless in the regular season and will be working towards the Yukon Championships.

But they never gave up with the young team giving it their all to the final whistle and standing and applauding every good play from their teammates on the court.

The Rams and Crusaders final will follow the girl’s game around 6:30 p.m.

But senior basketball games aren’t the only action across Whitehorse this weekend.

The Grade 7 Yukon Basketball Championships are being held across the city with 10 boy’s and seven girl’s teams vying for the respective titles.

The community of Faro is represented on the boy’s side with a team from Del Van Gorder School making the trip for the tournament.

The playoffs and medal games Saturday will be held at Porter Creek. The girl’s final is scheduled for 2 p.m. and the boy’s final at 3 p.m.

Round-robin games will be played throughout today at the Canada Games Centre and Selkirk Elementary School.

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