In round robin play, the Whitehorse Porter Creek Rams defeated the Whitehorse Vanier Catholic Secondary Crusaders 78-70. The Crusaders had led 27-4 in the first half. “Three of my best players got into foul trouble and they started to come back,” Crusaders coach Sean McCarron told the Yukon News. “Our defence just wasn’t there and Porter Creek played one of the best games I’ve seen them play this whole year. ……………………………………………………
In the final, the Whitehorse Vanier Catholic Secondary Crusaders dumped the Whitehorse Porter Creek Rams 70-60 as tournament MVP Gavin Clarke scored 21, including five treys. “We switched up our defence a little bit – we were playing the zone – and that usually allows a few more three (pointers),” Clarke told the Yukon News. “So we had to change that after a while because Logan Boehmer is a great shooter, getting three in a row. I was just feeling it. That’s my spot and they were leaving me open. They were really focusing on (Crusader) Logan (Gray), which allows me to do some damage.” With the score knotted at 48 in the third quarter, Crusader Ryan Sutherland hit a pair of free throws. He added another at the start of the fourth quarter and the Crusaders took command as Clarke drove for a bucket and Arthur Mauro notched a putback. Clarke soon added a hook to make it 57-50. “For a lot of us, this is our last high school game, so we were a little more serious,” said Clarke. “Both teams really competed hard.” Gray paced the Crusaders with 20, along with 19 boards. Sutherland added 11. Boehmer led the Rams with 15. Robin Smith added 10 and Riley Smith 10. “Leading into today’s game, that (round-robin) loss was the best thing to happen to us. With them beating us, we knew we weren’t going to take them lightly,” said McCarron. “We had the lead most of the game, but it was never comfortable.” Rams coach Logan Wedge said that “we did a box-and-one defence, where we stuck a defender on Logan (Gray) and then we ran the zone, and they had a lot of trouble with it on Monday,” said Rams head coach Logan Wedge. “They had a lot of trouble with it today too, until a couple of the kids started hitting shots. (Gavin Clarke) really kept them in the game in the first half because we had them on the run and no one else was really producing except for Clarke – the threes kept dropping. I’ll give them credit, they’re a great team, but we’re going to get them next year.” McCarron told the Whitehorse Star that Logan Boehmer had an exceptional game for the Rams. “Logan was a big reason why they stayed in the game.” McCarron added that the round robin loss was a motivator. “It was quite a wake-up call for us. That loss for us was probably the best thing that could have happened to us. We didn’t allow them to get down low like they did the other night. We put on a good show. It’s nice because a lot of these guys are graduating. We played definitely good enough to win it. It wasn’t the cleanest game for us. In the end we just kind of kept that five to 10 lead.”
The bronze medalist Whitehorse F.H. Collins Warriors: Dylan Salvisberg; Kevin Qiu; Wilfred Johnson; Riley Simpson-Fowler; Jaquin McWatters; coach Jeff Cressman
The silver medalist Whitehorse Porter Creek Rams: Robin Smith; Logan Boehmer; Cameron Weeks; Riley Smith;
The gold medalist Whitehorse Vanier Catholic Secondary Crusaders: Gavin Clarke; Logan Gray; Arthur Mauro; Henry Kedziora; Ryan Sutherland; coach Sean McCarron