Both North Battleford Comprehensive High School coaches, Jamie Sommerfeld and Bryan Cottini, were happy with their teams' efforts on the weekend in one of the biggest senior basketball tournaments of the season.
Why wouldn't they be?
Sommerfeld's senior boys' team went undefeated and won the gold medal while Cottini's senior girls did the same and captured their second tournament championship of the season.
The Saskatoon Bowlt Classic, the 32-team tournament, kicked off Thursday, as the boys faced Bedford Road to start their pool play. The Vikings won 65-46 over what coach Sommerfeld described as a good physical team. Senior Rob Gaetz led the Vikings with 12 points.
The next game the Vikings beat Bethlehem in Bethlehem, meaning there was a great atmosphere in the packed gymnasium. The Vikings won 68-52 with Gaetz draining 22 points.
Saturday morning, the Vikings wrapped up the round robin with an 88-74 win over St. Joseph and fortunately some of the younger players were able to get into the game and rest the starters for the final. Cody Buziak had 30 points for the Vikings during the win.
In the orange championship game, the Vikings played a tough, physical Tommy Douglas team at Tommy Douglas and earned the 73-52 win. Buziak, again, lead the offence with 26 points.
"It was a very exciting final against a pretty good team and so it showed some real growth from the week before," said Sommerfeld. "The boys are progressing really well."
Although the championship was a big accomplishment, Sommerfeld still expects the road to provincials to be difficult. Some of the top 4A teams weren't at the tournament or in their division, as there was a gold division for the 5A teams and other top end 4A teams. The orange division included mostly 4A teams from Saskatoon along with Moose Jaw Vanier and NBCHS.
Sommerfeld was pleased with his team and said things may be coming together sooner than he expected.
"These boys had to learn how to play together," he said. "We have some very skilled players, but it doesn't matter if they don't know how to work together."
The boys will look to continue their momentum this weekend while they play in another major tournament, this time in Lethbridge, Alta. where they will see some of the top teams from Alberta.
The girls will play in Prince Albert Carlton looking for their third straight tournament championship this weekend.
After four lopsided games, some different defensive strategies and plenty of playing time for the bench players, the Vikings earned gold in the orange division.
Thursday, the girls beat Tommy Douglas 77-17 and Kendra Humenny led the attack with 15 points.
Friday, Humenny led the way again earning 22 points in the Vikings 63-13 win over Marion Graham.
Saturday morning, the Vikings beat Centennial 61-36 and Humenny led the way with 22 points. Cottini admitted he had to leave his starters on the court longer than he anticipated because of the strong play from Centennial, but his team settled down and was able to prevail.
In the final, the Vikings trailed Walter Murray after the first quarter, but led by 14 at half time and earned the 70-34 win with Humenny draining 20 points.
Although Cottini expected to have a strong team with four of five starters from last year returning this season, he was impressed with the way many of his players made the transition from volleyball provincials to basketball in less than a week.
"It was a tough transition to get their heads flipped to the next sport, but I think we are almost where we need to be mentally," said Cottini.
