JV Gorge Shoot Out

What a great tournament. Every single Mariner should be proud of their effort this weekend. The JV boys finished 2nd overall with their only loss being to AAA Simonds High School who won the entire tournament. Overall the coaches were very happy particularly with the improved play of the younger players as the tournament went on.

Game 1 Summary

In the first game the first place team in the AA JV Northwest Conference the Devon Park Eagles faced off against Campobello. While the Vikings hung tough, the Eagles pulled away with a physical offense and defense grinding out a 55-42 win.

Game 2 Summary

Simonds High faced off against the home team Mariners. The hosts took a big blow early with starter post Dylan Hall breaking his finger trying to deflect a pass. He was lost for the remainder of the weekend. The injury and some aggressive play by the larger/faster Simonds Seabees overwhelmed some of the younger Mariners early. The Mariners struggled to find was to score against the phsyical and aggressive Simonds High defense and battled hard in a 62-43 loss.

Game 3 Summary

Devon Park and Fundy locked horns in an early morning battle Sat. This was a defensive battle the whole way the the Eagles and Mariners keeping each other off the scoreboard as much as possible. The Mariners trailed most of the way until the minutes but were confident as every player had played and applied pressure on the heavily used Devon Park starting core. In the final three minutes the game long deficit quickly turned into an insurmountable lead for the Mariners who ended up winning 48-42. This handed the Eagles their first loss to AA competition all year. The only downside for the Mariners was the loss of another top player (Tanner Thompson) who left to get stitches in his chin immediately following the game.

Game 4

In the other morning game the Simonds Seabess had their way with the Campobello Vikings. The Simonds defense took over early turning mistakes by the Vikings into points. Jumping out a 20 point lead early the game settled down with Simonds eventually winning 75 - 42.


Game 5

In a break from JV action the host Mariners Varsity squad took time away from the table duties to take on the AAA Hampton Huskies. The game lost some of its luster when the Huskies only arrived with 6 players. The Mariners turned this into an opportunity to play everyone and ended up winning easily 74-56.

Game 6

A highly anticipated matchup had Devon Park at 1-1 facing the 2-0 Simonds squad with a chance to create some tournament drama on the line. Very early on it was evident this was not going to be the case. The Eagles made a number of mistakes and had very poor shooting early to allow Simonds to jump out to a 30 point lead by halftime. While the Eagles showed their true colours in the 2nd half if was too little, too late as the Seabess hung on for an easy 74-52 win.

Game 7

The last game of the tournament was a dandy. The two Charlotte County teams put on a real show. The short handed Mariners and the hungry Vikings put on an offensive show in the first half. With the Mariners in foul trouble the top VCikings players took advantage scoring at will. The Mariner's younger bench players, having a complete 180 from their intimidation in the Simonds came did not back down an inch when given a chance to prove themselves. In fact over the course of the game every single Mariner put up points. Being down 3 in the final minutes the Mariners didn't panic. Cutting the lead to 1, the going ahead on 2 free throws with 30 seconds to go. Finally some clutch free throw shooting sealed a hard fought 65-61 win for the home team.