The Grizzlies had a bit of a slow start, succumbing to some nerves against high pressure from Duchess Park. Down by 20 at half, the Grizzlies dug in and rallied, lead by strong performances from Danielle Kocher, Mykenzie Beech and Isabella Ziebart. The girls closed the gap to within 10 points, but were unable to catch up, and ultimately lost the game. However, the girls left everything on the court and coaches Kelly Ziebart and Samantha Stackhouse were incredibly proud of the team’s effort. The loss put the Grizzlies up against Dawson Creek in the next game. In a throwback to their match up in the Bert Bowes tournament, the girls went point for point with Dawson Creek. It was a hard fought game and with 10 seconds left in the 4th quarter, the score was tied 36-36. In a deja vue moment, Haeli Ziegler found herself with the ball just inside the 3 point line and made sweet bank shot to put the Grizzlies up 38-36 and seal the win.

The last game of the season for the Grizzlies was against Kelly Road. Down a player due to injury, the girls didn’t have quite enough gas in the tank to keep up for the whole game, and took a hard fought loss, putting them in 4th place to finish the tournament. Isabella Ziebart earned a 2nd team All-Star Team nomination, while Jenna Miranda and Danielle Kocher earned honourable mentions. Congrats Grizzlies on a great season!

The weekend saw the Junior Boys Basketball in action for the last tournament of the year at Kelly Road Secondary School in Prince George. The Grizzlies started the tournament against a strong PGSS team, unfortunately they came out slow and were unable to hit shots early; but strong defence kept them in the game until the second half. In the second half the Grizzlies put together a strong push led by Gryphon Talbot and Tristan Stockall that saw the game tied with 48 seconds left on the clock. Ultimately PGSS hit key free throws down the stretch that saw the Grizzlies fall by just four points.

The next game for the Grizzlies saw them play their most complete game of the season against Correlieu. All 12 Grizzlies got onto the floor and made contributions to help build a strong lead going into the second half. The Grizzlies continued their strong defensive play and hit shots all game long to take a comfortable win to set up a rematch with Duchess Park.

In their third game of the tournament, the Grizzlies came out flat against the strong Duchess Park team. The boys dug themselves a hole that they wouldn’t be able to overcome and ultimately lost the game. However, the Grizzlies never gave up and played hard through the entire game to close the gap and make the game competitive until the end. Led by Colton Dyck and his nine made three pointers, the boys built momentum going into the last game of the season against NVSS.

The Grizzlies last game of the season was one to remember for the boys seeing everyone once again get into the game and contribute. The coaches handed over the chipboard to injured player Ethan Middleton who led the boys to a win in their last game of the season. It was a close game until the end but timely timeouts and big shots hit at the right time led the boys to a two-point victory.

With a fifth place finish and a second team All-Star nomination for Colton Dyck the 2019 season wrapped up for the JV Boys finishing with a strong record of 14-6.

Male Athlete of the Week: Colton Dyck (Gr. 10, Jr Boys Basketball)

Female Athlete of the Week: Isabella Ziebart (Gr. 10, Jr Girls Basketball)