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Junior All Native Tournament takes over Terrace, BC

The tournament, this year hosted by the Nisga’a Nation is the largest basketball tournament in the country.

Last week, more than 1,200 athletes on 88 Indigenous teams in four divisions from across B.C. descended on Terrace for the 2024 Junior All Native Basketball Tournament.

After 148 games in gymnasiums at the Terrace Sportsplex (Hidber Arena and Main Arena), Caledonia Senior Secondary School, Skeena Middle School, Thornhill Gymnasium, and Suwilaawks Community School, four teams were left standing.

The tournament, this year hosted by the Nisga’a Nation is the largest basketball tournament in the country.

Nisga’a teams made it deep into the tournament with Laxgalats’ap (U13 boys) and Gitlaxt’aamiks (U13 girls) going all the way to the championship games in their divisions.

Only the Gitlasxt’aamiks girls, though, came away with the trophy.

The Laxgalts’ap boys settled for silver as the team from Ahousaht earned the title.

In the U17 boys division it was the Syilix team from the Okanagan Nation Alliance who prevailed.

The U17 girl’s title went to Nuxalk (Bella Coola).

FINALS

U17 Girls

Bella Coola 83 - Port Alberni 61

U17 Boys

Syilix 70 - Vancouver 67

U13 Girls

Gitanmaax 26 - Gitlaxt’aamiks 37

U13 Boys

Ahousaht 66 - Laxgalts’ap 37

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Thom Barker

About the Author: Thom Barker

After graduating with a geology degree from Carleton University and taking a detour through the high tech business, Thom started his journalism career as a fact-checker for a magazine in Ottawa in 2002.
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