The Whitehorse Lynx girls basketball team returned from Alaska with an even record over the weekend.
The Lynx won two and lost two at the Boyd Worley Elementary Basketball Tournament at Skagway City School. (No official final team placements were determined following the round-robin tournament.)
“I think we got better every game,” said Lynx head coach Christine Kirk. “It was such a good learning weekend for us. When you don’t get that many games throughout the year - it was some of the girls’ first basketball game ever - it was a huge step as far as our learning goes.”
The Whitehorse squad opened with a 31-14 loss to Haines, Alaska’s Glacier Bears on Friday. They then won 14-6 over the Skagway Panthers later on Friday.
“It was the lowest scoring game ever,” said Kirk.
On Saturday the Lynx played two Hoonah Braves teams from Alaska’s Hoonah School.
The Lynx dropped a game 27-17 against the Braves’ older squad, made up mostly of Grade 8 players.
The Whitehorse team, with just a couple Grade 8 players, then squashed the Braves’ younger squad 34-6.
The Lynx team, which is in its third season together, does not represent any specific school. It’s a girls under-13 team for players in Grade 5-8 with players from various Whitehorse elementary schools.
The Haines’ Glacier Bears are coming to Whitehorse for a small tournament with the Lynx Dec. 7-8.
“We will put together a little jamboree and we might get some young kids from (Yukon’s) Arctic Winter Games team, and an F.H. (Collins Secondary) Grade 8 team,” said Kirk.
“We’re also going back to Haines in January or February. To end off the year we’ll probably do a bigger trip somewhere, maybe down south in Vancouver.”
The Lynx played their first games as a team last February in Haines, Alaska. They won three of four exhibition games against girls teams from Haines Elementary School.
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com