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Junior T-Birds net divisional championships

R.F. Staples School's junior high basketball teams have mined more gold and silver after sweeping the divisional championships in Barrhead Feb. 23 and then taking to the floor of Feb. 24-25 tournament in Morinville.
R.F. Staples’ Delaiya Dutchak flies past a defender during the divisional finals Feb. 23 in Barrhead.
R.F. Staples’ Delaiya Dutchak flies past a defender during the divisional finals Feb. 23 in Barrhead.

R.F. Staples School's junior high basketball teams have mined more gold and silver after sweeping the divisional championships in Barrhead Feb. 23 and then taking to the floor of Feb. 24-25 tournament in Morinville.

The junior T-Birds claimed divisional gold on both sides of the draw, with the girls edging out the St. Mary Sharks.

Then, the T-Birds hit Morinville for a tournament where both teams dominated again, with the boys taking gold after defeating the home team. The girls were edged by Morinville 39-34 to claim silver.

'That was a nail-biter of a game. We're definitely on a roll," said girls head coach Margaret Benham. 'It's the end of our season, so the girls and the boys are prepared. We went into the divisional championships ranked first, so we got a bye in the first round."

Benham noted that while usually being able to skip a round is a good thing, for her team it was more frustrating than anything else.

'For some people it's great, but for us we like to play a lot," she added. 'We had a very strong defence, I have a lot of tall girls who move really fast."

The last time both the boys and girls teams were divisional champions was 2011.

'It's a long time coming," added Benham. 'The girls won divisionals two years ago, but it's been a little while for the boys."

While both teams were able to dominate, the T-Birds encountered some turbulence in Morinvillle.

'It was a bit more competition than what we had had in our season so far," said boys head coach Matti Hurst.

'The boys really came together and worked the court as a whole unit instead of just individually. I'm really proud of how the boys came together."

Benham noted that the Morinville event was a good warm-up for the upcoming zones.

'I expected we were going to see some of the tougher teams, ones outside of our division," she noted. 'Basically the strongest teams. We'll see them again in zones."

The teams are now headed in two separate directions to their zone playoffs, with the boys headed back to Morinville and the girls headed to Edson March 3-4.

'We only have a couple practices, so we're going to use what we noticed in some of our tougher games this past weekend and modify some things," added Hurst.

Benham said she was working on her team's defence going into zones.

'In our division we have to play man-to-man and be able to break a zone defence," she said.

'We want to refine some of our own plays. We know what team we're playing first on Friday, so we're pretty confident we'll be in the metal round. We're expecting to play Morinville again in the finals, so we need to be ready for that."

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