Red Lake Youth Basketball Tournament of Thursday, March 1, 2012

Red Lake, Mn - Thursday evening saw alot of future basketball players from the Red Lake and Leech Lake Nations descending upon Red Lake for a round robin tournament. 6 teams made up the field and after two warm up games between the Red Lake teams, the first game featured St. Mary's Mission vs. Chief Bugonaygeshig, with St. Mary's coming up short 16-32. Game #2 was between the two Red Lake teams, with the White team getting the win in a good, close game 23-22!

Game #3 was RL Red vs. Bug, with the Eagles holding on 24-19 for the win! Game #4 was RL White vs. St. Mary's that saw RL get the 25-18 win! Cass Lake arrived a lil late with two teams and their Blue team faced RL Red in game #5 that saw Cass Lake dominate 39-9! St. Mary's played Cass Lake Red in game #6 with Cass Lake getting the win 20-12. Game #7 saw Bug defeat RL White 34-18 to go 3-0 on the evening!

Game #8 was RL Red vs. St. Mary's and this was a good one that saw alot of good plays and big shots. In the end it came down to a 3rd grader, James Beaulieu, Jr. who was fouled on his shot after getting the offensive rebound, at the line with 2 seconds left and the game tied. He missed the first one, but his second one was nothing but net! RL Red won 23-22!!

In game #9 RL White faced Cass Lake Blue, and this was a good one! Lots of good plays by both teams on both ends of the floor! The game was close throughout with each team answering each others runs with runs of their own. With 20 seconds left RL hit a big 3 to give them the 1 point lead, but Cass Lake answered back with the game winner with 3 seconds left to get the 37-36 win!!!

In the end a fun evening of basketball was had, no medals or all star trophies were on the line, but the kids played hard regardless. The hustle, talent and skill level of these kids were an awesome sight to see. It was also great to see the stands filled with Parents, Grand Parents and other family memebers cheering for and supporting the young athletes. A huge thanks to Wes Jourdain, Darrell Crowe, Jr. and Gerald Kingbird, Sr. for keeping score and reffing, we had 11 games total last night! Also to Ron Lussier for allowing use of the gym on a night that usually sees open gym, for which we apologize to all the players who weren't able to play last night due to our games.

The Elementary basketball season is just beginning, so I look forward to lots more events like this one, as well as upcoming tournaments that we are in!