Joey Payeur
With a smaller-than-average court, eight-minute halves, and straight running time in all games, the amount of room for mistakes was minimal.
It turns out the home team didn’t have any problem making the necessary adjustments.
It was a banner day for “Gang Green” as the Sturgeon Creek Sturgeons emerged as the best team in both the Grade 7 and Grade 8 divisions of the Rainy River District Athletic Association West Regional boys’ basketball tournament last Thursday (Feb. 17).
The green-clad Sturgeons clinched top spot among the six teams in the Grade 8 division with a 2-0-1 record, making them the only team in either division to get through the day unbeaten.
The hosts opened with a hard-fought 14-10 decision over the Crossroads Tornadoes #1 squad from Devlin before tying the Riverview Royals (Rainy River) 6-6 in their second outing.
With the last four games of the day shortened to two five-minute halves due to time constraints, the Sturgeons gave Donald Young School (Emo) a lesson in airtight defence, blanking DYS 6-0 to put a lock on first place.
Crossroads #1 rebounded from its opening disappointment to wind up in second place.
The Tornadoes were solid at both ends of the floor in a 14-5 victory over the Our Lady of the Way Voyageurs (Stratton), then put in another all-around great performance with a 14-6 defeat of Riverview.
The Voyageurs’ misstep against Crossroads #1 was their lone down note in what was a most positive showing by a squad composed of all Grade 7 players except for one Grade 8 participant.
OLW also finished at 2-1 for third place, sandwiching a 10-4 win over DYS and a 10-5 doubling of Crossroads #2 around its loss to Crossroads #1, which decided the tiebreaker for second spot.
DYS came through to snare fourth place with a 1-2 record, stepping up its game to down Crossroads #2 by a 12-6 margin.
Riverview tied Crossroads #2 14-14 in the highest-scoring game of the tourney, but nosed out the Devlin crew for fifth place with an 0-1-2 mark, ahead of Crossroads #2 in sixth at 0-2-1.
On the Grade 7 side of the draw, a double round-robin format saw Sturgeon Creek also prevail over two teams with a 3-1 record.
The Sturgeons launched their tourney adventure with a dominating 16-2 win over DYS before being nipped 6-4 by Crossroads.
Then after dumping DYS 8-2 to sweep the Emo side, Sturgeon Creek and Crossroads locked horns with the division title on the line.
Only this time, the Sturgeons flexed their muscles to deliver an 11-0 whitewashing to the Tornadoes.
Crossroads claimed second place with a 2-2 record as the Tornadoes had stormed past DYS 12-2 in their first meeting.
But DYS, which ended up third at 1-3, earned payback—and its only victory of the day—in a 6-4 thriller over Crossroads.
The tournament was without medals or trophies for the top finishers, but instead served as the only event of the season for the Grade 7 teams.
Meanwhile, it was a tune-up for this Saturday’s RRDAA boys’ regional championships at Fort Frances High School for the Grade 8 squads.
The district’s female teams held a West Regional tourney of their own at DYS last Thursday (no results were available by press time).
The Grade 8 girls’ teams will also be at FFHS on Saturday for their regional championship.
However, both regionals will be shifted to J.W. Walker School for the girls and Robert Moore School for the boys should the Muskie senior girls’ volleyball team end up hosting the NWOSSAA volleyball playoffs this Friday and Saturday versus the Thunder Bay champion St. Ignatius Falcons.
