Last week, more than 1,200 athletes on 88 Indigenous teams in four divisions from across B.C. descended on Terrace for the 2024 Junior All Native Basketball Tournament.
After 148 games in gymnasiums at the Terrace Sportsplex (Hidber Arena and Main Arena), Caledonia Senior Secondary School, Skeena Middle School, Thornhill Gymnasium, and Suwilaawks Community School, four teams were left standing.
The tournament, this year hosted by the Nisga’a Nation is the largest basketball tournament in the country.
Nisga’a teams made it deep into the tournament with Laxgalats’ap (U13 boys) and Gitlaxt’aamiks (U13 girls) going all the way to the championship games in their divisions.
Only the Gitlasxt’aamiks girls, though, came away with the trophy.
The Laxgalts’ap boys settled for silver as the team from Ahousaht earned the title.
In the U17 boys division it was the Syilix team from the Okanagan Nation Alliance who prevailed.
The U17 girl’s title went to Nuxalk (Bella Coola).
FINALS
U17 Girls
Bella Coola 83 - Port Alberni 61
U17 Boys
Syilix 70 - Vancouver 67
U13 Girls
Gitanmaax 26 - Gitlaxt’aamiks 37
U13 Boys
Ahousaht 66 - Laxgalts’ap 37
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