Hoops club mines silver in Calgary
The Lake City U14 and LC Elite 17 teams travelled to Calgary on May 19-21 for the Genesis Tournament, which drew hoops teams from across Western Canada.
The U14 team competed in the U15 Silver Division, sweeping four games in its pool over Friday and Saturday to advance to the championship bracket.
In the championship semi-final, Lake City took down Outlaws U15 (Medicine Hat) 58-46 to set up a championship game against 3D Academy U15 (Vancouver).
Trailing 39-20 at half-time in the final, Lake City came storming back to take a three-point lead with five minutes to play, before losing 62-60.
“In a tournament like this with so many games in a condensed timeframe, it was really important to get contributions across the board and we got that – guys like Jasdeep Dhaliwal, Jude Splane and Balkaran Lidhar made some key contributions,” said coach Russ Reid.
“I’m incredibly proud of the way the boys battled in the final half. It was our sixth game in less than 48 hours against a big, physical team, and it would have been easy for the boys to check out after the half, but we got a spark from Graydon Kulak, who had eight straight points, and we got rolling.”
Reid noted the team also got stellar performances from their big bodies – Mhyles Postnikoff, Julius Bartkowicz, Miller Jurcic and Jonah Colley – in the championship game.
The LC Elite 17 team finished the weekend 2-2 in the Gold Division with losses to Genesis Basketball (Calgary) and Excel Basketball (Vancouver) sandwiched between their two wins.
With a couple of key injuries, the LC Elite team got big minutes and key contributions from Marshel Holt, Carter O’Neil, Jack Campbell and Saxon Garrity.
For both squads, the tournament gave players a chance to compete against some of the top teams in B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan.
The teams are off to the Lower Mainland this weekend, along with five others from Lake City Basketball, to tip off in the B.C. Spring Shootout tournament.