An event the size of the British Columbia Junior All Native Basketball Championships will have as many different scenarios to play out as there are teams, and with 23 teams entered for the 2012 Girls side being held in Port Alberni, there are 23 scenarios.
For one team, the road to the final, while at times difficult to negotiate, will be fairly rapid. That team could conceivably find itself in Friday’s final after playing as few as four games. For other teams, it could take as many as eight games, if a team is to lose in the first round and then get on a roll.
Others are destined, however, to find themselves on the outside looking in, having played as few as two games.
Tournament photos at: http://www.hashilthsa.com/photos
Unfortunately for the Iisaak Ravens and their team of coaches, their fate falls into this latter category.
After an opening round loss to Mount Currie on Monday morning, the Ravens found themselves back on the court on Tuesday afternoon against an older and bigger Kispiox team. With their tournament lives on the line the Ravens played well enough to hold the lead against their counterparts well into the second half. But the size and experience of Kispiox finally took its toll and the Ravens surrendered their lead just before the mid-point of the third frame. They managed to stay close, but could never regain the lead, and eventually succumbed to the team from the confluence of the Kispiox and Skeena Rivers by a score of 51-45.
Two members of the team, Michaela Amos and Ky’lee Tom, while disappointed in their team’s early exit, were happy with their efforts and felt they had learned some valuable lessons that afternoon.
“We were playing good until we started getting frustrated,” said Amos. “We thought we could beat them.”
Amos and Tom are two players from opposite ends of the basketball spectrum. The 13-year old Amos stands about 5-foot-8, and may be the tallest player on her team, while nine-year old Tom is definitely the shortest. To say she is four feet tall would be a stretch.
While both players have attributes that can work to their advantage, Amos’ leaping ability and Tom’s quickness, both are young, something they can do nothing about, considering there are players nearing, and in some cases older than, 17.
As befits her stature, Amos spent most of the game gathering rebounds and intercepting passes, while also picking up big minutes and a number of bumps and bruises along the way.
“I got knocked down a lot today,” Amos remembered. “Usually against the taller girls it is more about getting rebounds, but not today.”
Tom, who didn’t see the floor as much as Amos did, garnered about six minutes playing time and spent the rest of the game entertaining her team mates with jokes and anecdotes, and shaking hands and congratulating her peers as they came off the floor.
“That’s my job,” said Tom. “I shake hands.”
Both players hope to take in a little more of the tournament and will stay as long as they can, both having family members who enjoy spending time around a basketball gym.
The losses will be lost to memory in the not too distant future, but they will take some good memories away from the tournament.
“I remember watching everyone walk into the building when I was younger,” Amos said of Sunday night’s opening ceremony, “so to finally be able to walk in with the other players this year was awesome.”
For her part the younger Tom agreed.
“That was cool,” said the youngster, her infectious smile showing that she meant those words in no uncertain terms.
