The Holy Rosary Raiders warmed up for their home Holiday Hoops tournament with a golden performance in the Lloydminster Comprehensive High School junior A Barons girls’ basketball tourney just last weekend.
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The junior A1 Raiders capped their unbeaten showing with a 40-point victory (73-33) over the North Battleford Vikings in Saturday evening’s final.
“My team played hard and continued to improve throughout the weekend,” said Holy Rosary coach Becky Grassl. “Our team has six returners this year and they all stepped up and took control on the court.
“We have five (players) new to the team and they all improved and contributed every game, too. That is even more
exciting than winning the tournament — every single member of the team contributed to our success the whole weekend. We’re 11 (girls) strong.
“It sure is fun to see the girls work hard and improve this early in the season, already.”
In the two-day tournament, the Raiders defeated the host Barons in the semifinals after posting round-robin victories over Carpenter of Meadow Lake and John Paul II of North Battleford.
This weekend, Holy Rosary hosts its annual holiday tournament, before hitting the road in January for events in Ardrossan, Wetaskiwin and Sherwood Park.
BRONZE FOR BARONS
In the six-team LCHS girls’ tournament, the host Barons were the bronze-medallists. They had finished second in their pool, before dropping their playoff matchup against Holy Rosary.
“It started out really close, and then Holy Rosary pulled away,” said Barons coach Christine Thiessen. “They have a really strong team.”
As for her own club, Thiessen saw promising signs from that group of Grade 9 players, and across the board in both the girls’ and boys’ junior tournaments held simultaneously at the two LCHS gymnasiums.
“For sure, there was lots of really good competition here,” Thiessen said. “There were some strong teams that came in.
“One of the pools, we had to do a tiebreaker, it was so close.”
The LCHS girls defeated Carpenter (Meadow Lake) in their bronze-medal game, while the Barons boys’ team knocked off John Paul II (North Battleford) in their third-place contest.
Along with the clubs from Lloydminster, North Battleford and Meadow Lake, Unity played in both the girls’ and boys’ tournaments, while Martensville was part of the boys’ field.
Many of the same junior teams return to the court this Friday and Saturday for the Holy Rosary tournament in Lloydminster.
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