Basketball tournament concludes high school season

Home court proved to be an advantage for F.H. Collins Secondary School's two competing teams in the gold medal game of the Grade 11 and 12 Yukon Territorial Basketball Tournament Championships.

Home court proved to be an advantage for F.H. Collins Secondary School’s two competing teams in the gold medal game of the Grade 11 and 12 Yukon Territorial Basketball Tournament Championships. 
Both the school’s girls’ and boys’ teams were undefeated throughout the entire tournament, each finishing with decisive victories over their opponents in Thursday’s final.
F.H. Collins always hosts the final because their gym layout, out of the three local high schools, allows for the largest number of fans to take in the event.

The tournament started on Monday and the top two boys’ and girls’ teams automatically qualified for the finals on Thursday.
“I am pretty pleased with the tournament,“ said Tim Brady, president of Basketball Yukon. “I think there have been some good games this week and all of the teams have played hard and played competitively.

It just kind of showcased the end of the season for basketball for all three of the high school teams here and I think we got a pretty good turnout for fans to see some good games.“
Seven teams in total participated in the tournament and were divided into two divisions.

The boys’ division was made up of F.H. Collins, Vanier, Porter Creek and Haines Junction, while the girls’ just had the three local high schools.
Round robin format was used for the event and each team played once a day, with the exception of the girls’ teams. They each had a one-day bye because their division had one less team than the boys.
The girls’ final was the first that was played on Thursday and featured the F.H. Warriors against the Porter Creek Rams.
After a couple of close misses from both teams, it was the Warriors who were the first to get on the board, scoring a point after being fouled. F.H. didn’t hold back and went on an incredible 9-0 run, before Porter Creek was able to sink their first basket.
The game really picked up halfway through the first quarter and the Rams began to claw back, scoring more than a few timely shots to bring the game to a close 12-10 score, which was in favour of F.H.
This was as close as the Rams would get though. The Warriors finished the first quarter by going on a 7-0 run to take a nine-point lead into the second.
Both teams played well in the second quarter, before a timeout was called with F.H. leading 30-20 and 2:52 remaining on the clock. F.H. seemed to benefit from the brief break and when play resumed, went on a 7-2 run to conclude the second quarter.
In the third quarter Porter Creek once again showed its determination to get back into the game, scoring 10 straight points to bring the game to a close 39-32 mark.
F.H responded with a breakaway layup, which would be the beginning of a 10-2 run for the team. Although Porter Creek scored the last basket of the quarter, F.H. had a commanding 15 point lead, heading into the final quarter.   
With F.H. leading 56-41 at the beginning of the fourth quarter, the team really began to pull away with an 11-2 run and eventually increased its lead to 30 points.
Both teams played hard, but in the end F.H. was just too strong and won the game by a score of 86-54.
Noria Deacon is in Grade 12 and was on the F.H. Collins girls’ team.

Deacon has had a great deal of success at this tournament and this was her third gold medal in a row at the Yukon Territorial Basketball Tournament Championships.

Her first gold medal came when she was in Grade 10 and on the junior team.
She said she was confident heading into the final.
“I felt pretty good,“ she said. “We know how to pick it up when we are down and we really work well as a team.“
Deacon, who was named as tournament MVP for the girls’ division, said this season’s gold medal was the most meaningful because it is her final year competing at the event.
The F.H. Collins boys’ team played against the Vanier Crusaders in their final, which followed the girls’ game.
The first quarter was a thriller with both teams making clutch shots and F.H. managing to hold on to a slim one- point lead, heading into the second quarter.
In the second quarter, the lead went back and forth between the two teams before F.H. went on an 11-2 run, putting them ahead 40-29.
There was no quit in Vanier though and the team scored four straight points to finish the second quarter. The final score at the end of half was 40-33.
After F.H. responded by scoring four straight points of their own to begin the third quarter, Vanier went on an incredible 10-2 run.

The Crusaders were just four points behind F.H., but that would be as close as they would get as the Warriors would respond, scoring eight more points and limiting Vanier to just two before the third quarter concluded.
F.H. carried their incredible play over into the fourth and despite a valiant effort made on the part of Vanier, the Warriors were just too much for the team. The final score was 79-68.
Warriors player Tony Nguyen was named as MVP for the boys’ division.

John Debreceni has been officiating this tournament for more than 20 years. He said that tournaments like this are great for the players’ development.
“You can only practice so much and then after that you have to be able to play what you practice,“ he said. “So this tournament, it gives the kids an opportunity to put into practice what they practice.“
He said there is a lot of community support for this event.
“We don’t pack the house like they do in the States and stuff, but this is a pretty good turnout,“ Debreceni said.

“So people are starting to embrace basketball and they are here supporting their kids and here supporting their team. It is a whole community thing and it’s very good thing.“
Debreceni was impressed with how well the athletes in both divisions played this week and said he plans to be involved with the tournament again next year.