‘A’ boys take second in Barnwell basketball tournament

By Rob Vogt
The Willow Creek Composite High School junior high “A” boys’ basketball team continued their streak of top-two finishes in tournament play, taking second place at a tournament on the weekend.
The Cobras travelled to Barnwell on Dec. 15 and 16 for a tournament that is always competitive.
This year was more of the same as the Cobras had three great games against tough teams.
Their first game was against Gilbert Patterson of Lethbridge who were a smaller team but with a lot of quick, talented players.
Claresholm gave them a heavy dose of their larger post players and were able to win by a score of 64-53.
Jax DeJong and Easton Wright were dominant down low, scoring 22 and 16 points each.
Other scorers were Briggs Baker with 13 points, Grayson McClung with six points and Youseff Ehab with two points.
The Cobras’ semi-final game was against a very large team from Seven Persons. The Cobras are used to being bigger than everyone, so it was a good challenge.
They played a tight 1-3-1 zone defence against Seven Persons and were able to frustrate their big post players and keep them from scoring down low.
It was a low-scoring, physical game the Cobras won by a score of 43-32.
Scorers were Briggs Baker with 16 points, Jax DeJong 16 points, and Easton Wright 11 points.
In the final, Claresholm played the host team from Barnwell.
The boys were very beat up and tired, as well as battling some illness, but they were able to stay with Barnwell the whole game right up until the end, losing by four points at 49-45.
The Cobras said it was a very physical game with very few fouls called, but the boys showed a lot of heart and hung in there.
Briggs Baker led the way with 29 points, followed by Jax DeJong with eight points, Easton Wright with four points, and Grayson McClung with four points.