NACI junior varsity basketball splits games with Carberry

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Published on Friday, January 23, 2015

By Eoin Devereux

The Neepawa Banner

It was an evening of mixed results for the Neepawa Tigers junior varsity basketball teams on Monday, Jan. 19. 

The girls’ squad was able to take a commanding lead early and cruise to a 56-27 win over Carberry. NACI jumped out to an 20-8 advantage after the first quarter and a 36-13 lead at half. Coach Mike Rainnie said the players set the tone early with their superb execution on defence and rebounding. 

“Our full court defensive strategy that we’ve been running, we’re pretty comfortable with it. We used it early and it seemed to be effective,” said Rainnee. “Rebounding is also something I emphasized during halftime. Carberry was a larger team than us, so we needed to outwork them to get the rebounds. The first quarter was a little rough for us but we settled down and after that, it was better.”

In the junior boys varsity game, the Carberry Cougars were able to outlast Neepawa, on the way to a 47-31 victory. Despite being limited to a single available reserve player, compared to seven backups for Carberry, the Tigers kept it close for much of the first half. In the third and fourth quarters however, fatigue set in and the Cougars were able to pull away for the win.

The next games for both  teams are set for Monday, Feb. 2, against MacGregor.