The Mount Baker basketball teams have been busy over the last few weeks, heading to tournaments local and abroad.
The senior boys came out of a tournament in Fernie this past weekend, pulling out a pair of wins against Sparwood and Kimberley, with only one loss to the East Kootenay’s best out of Creston.
The Mount Baker Wild fell by only one point in their first game against Creston, but rebounded with two solid wins over Sparwood Spartans and the Selkirk Storm.
Two weeks ago, the Wild were in Alberta territory, going up against some tough teams at a tournament in Calgary.
Tied at halftime with a team out of Airdrie, the Wild took the foot off the gas in the third quarter which didn’t help on the way to their first loss .
The next two games, both against high school teams out of Calgary, the senior boys fell flat, according to head coach Shaun Penner.
However, the final match between the Wild and the Henry Wise Wood Warriors had a little silver lining, as the Mount Baker bench scored over 30 points to make it a competitive finish.
“We step up against the best teams,” said Penner. “When we go up against teams that we know that we’re only going to win if we play our best game, those guys will go out and give their best.
“We play down to weaker competition though.
“…You got to respect each and every opponent, and I don’t think that we do sometimes, so that’s our biggest area. We got to play our top game, game in and game out.”
The senior girls had a tough weekend in McGrath this past weekend with three losses in three games.
However, they attended the same Calgary tournament with the boys two weeks ago, picking up a well earned win with two losses.
“We won a game there and it was because we worked well together, helping with team defence and cheering from the bench, definitely,” said Heidi Anderson, a Grade 12 student on the team.
“Definitely we executed our offence way better and our team defence was there.”