A strong start, coupled with a good finish had the head coach of the Yukon boys' basketball team pleased with his squad's opening game performance at the Canada Summer Games.

In front of an enthusiastic cheering section, the Yukon boy's suited up on Sunday against a tough group from Alberta.

Despite keeping it close early on, which included trailing by just a few points early in the first quarter, the Yukon boy's ended up dropping the game 93-31.

"It was a fairly lopsided victory for them in the end, but our guys came out and they played hard and they competed throughout the whole game," said team coach Tim Brady. "I was proud of their play and effort.

I think we started the game well and we finished it well and we hope to build on those little positive things that happen.

"Alberta is a big team and they had a tough defence to play against and we turned the ball over too many times and gave them too many chances to score."

The 2009 Canada Summer Games are being held in a number of communities throughout P.E.I., including Summerside and Charlottetown.

On Sunday, the Yukon boys had a game plan heading into their tilt against Alberta and were hoping a previous meeting a couple of weeks ago in Manitoba would benefit them.

Unfortunately for the territory, however, Alberta switched tactics and instead of using a full court press, moved to a half court trap.

Alberta's size also provided some problems for the Yukon boys, who had a tough time throwing the ball over them, resulting in some turnovers.

Brady said that will be an area the team will focus on.

"It's something that every team that is successful really has to be able to minimize the number of times you give the ball away," he said. "We have to do a better job at handling pressure and making better decisions with the ball. It's a team thing, it's a team area for improvement."

He said even though they lost, there was a lot of people who commented on the team's effort and the competitiveness, in spite of the score.

"That's a great complement, because it's easy to sort of get discouraged when you are down and that doesn't happen with our guys," Brady said. "We are very resilient and we bounce back, that's what we do and that's what we will continue to do all week.

"Hopefully, when we have an opportunity to be competitive, which we think we will, we will be ready to play and we will do our best to do the things we need to do to be successful."

Brady said the games they are looking to be competitive in will be against the Northwest Territories and possibly Prince Edward Island.

The boy's basketball pool includes four divisions, each with three teams.

The other team in the Yukon's division is Nova Scotia, which Brady thinks is one of the medal favourites.

"They (Nova Scotia) have a legitimate shot for a medal here I think in the Canada Games," he said. "They are not really big, but are extremely athletic, one of the most athletic teams here.

"They are very quick and are good shooters and pressure the ball, all the things that can create problems for any team, including us and we will have our work cut out for us."

The Yukoners were in the process of playing Nova Scotia today at press time. The last time these teams met was two weeks ago in Manitoba, which ended with a convincing victory for the Maritime province.

On Monday, Nova Scotia won its opening contest at the 2009 Canada Summer Games against Alberta.

After it stormed out to an early 17-2 lead in the first five minutes, the team increased its advantage to 25-7. The final score was 82-54 in Nova Scotia's favour.

A win over the Yukon today would secure a first place showing for Nova Scotia, giving it an opportunity to play on TV (TSN 2) against the second place team from Pool A.

Brady said on Monday the Yukon's game plan against Nova Scotia is to focus on maintaining a strong pace and effort throughout the entire contest.

"Those are the things that we want to win," he said. "Getting back on defense and boxing out and rebounding battles, but Nova Scotia will be a huge challenge for us. We hope to play better than we did the last time we played them.

"We hope to see some improvement in our play and if we do then we will going to be good."

The Yukon girls' basketball squad, meanwhile, opened up the tournament with an 0-4 record. The team has played B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick so far. It's closest game was against Saskatchewan when the territory lost 89-36.

As of today, Quebec leads all provinces so far with 12 medals; three gold, three silver and six bronze.

B.C. sits in second with three gold, three silver and two bronze and Ontario rounds out the top three with two gold medals and one silver.

Manitoba is the only other province to medal so far at the Games, which included a silver.