Junior Boys basketball - Sabres defeat Redskins

Sabres #8 Matthias Vanderplas  sinks one
T. Lucas photos and video

Toni Lucas, Sports

Livingstone School's Junior A Boys basketball team hosted Piikani's Redskins on Thursday evening January 16 in Lundbreck.  The Sabres won by a wide margin.

The Sabres are a very well-knit team for such a young group.  #7 Brady Douglas was the top scorer in the game with 17 points.  Teammate John Erickson was right behind him by one point at 16 points.

Piikani #6 Lennox was his team's high scorer with 12 points.  Lennox made some great shots from outside the defensive zone that went in beautifully.  #3 Byron also made a good showing with 10 points.

Cole takes a shot

Afterwards Sabres Coach Paul Erickson explained his strategy for the game. "Usually I have my grade 9's on a lineup, and my grade 8's on a lineup.  We know the Piikani team wasn't as strong, so we just mixed them up to try something different.  The boys played well together.  It was good for them.  They weren't sure about it at first, but in the end they figured it out and were doing quite well."

"We tried to get everyone to score.  I think it the end there was only one person who didn't score, so it was a good game.  We're doing well.  We haven't lost in league yet, I think we've played four, so we're 4-and-0."

"We play next week at Matthew Halton, and at St. Mikes.  St. Mikes is usually on of our stronger competitions."

Piikani Coach Bryan Burns said he emphasized having fun as much as anything else to his players.  "This is my second year of coaching them.  Last year we had an older group of guys, and now we have a lot of younger guys so they're just learning learning the ropes, but they have a great attitude, and I couldn't ask for a greater group of guys.  One thing I really try to preach to them is to really have fun.  They have to know how to have fun while they're out there.  Whether the score is 61 - 31 for us or for them they still have to have a fun time and play the game the way it's supposed to be played.  It makes my job easier when I have a great group of guys to work with like this."

- corrected for accuracy