Colts win South zone basketball title, punch ticket to provincials

By JAMES TUBB on March 16, 2022.

jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb

A South zone gold and a spot in provincials is where McCoy Colts senior boys basketball coach B.J. Melle saw his team.

“We knew we had a good group of hard working kids and we felt that we’d be strong not only within our zone, but within the province and we’ve improved a lot,” Melle said. “Definitely, this has been our expectation from day one.

The Colts captured gold in the South zone Saturday when they beat the Winston Churchill Bulldogs 63-50 in their own gym.

Melle said the win was especially nice because the last time the Colts were in action they were ranked first in the province, before COVID-19 shutdown the season. When asked about his four returning players and new faces coming off COVID shutdowns, Melle said the resiliency has been good.

“The kids have worked really hard this year,” Melle said. “There’s a lot of new faces, we’ve only got four returning players and the rest are our Grade 10 or 11 because those kids weren’t at school two years ago. It’s been a challenge trying to catch them up to speed, but they work really hard and they’re good group kids.”

As they head to Strathmore this weekend for provincials facing teams like Brooks, Strathmore, Cochrane, etc., Melle said the strength of his team will be their defence.

“Our half-court defense is really strong and we pride ourselves on it, we work a lot on it in practice and the kids are very focused,” Melle said. “We know that we can’t control what happens on the offensive end whether or not the ball is going into hoop but we can remain consistent on the defensive end, so we work really hard on that.”

Their first matchup is against Strathmore, which means playing in a hostile environment of the host gym. When asked if he does or says anything special to prepare his players for that environment, Melle said he doesn’t think his team feels a lot of pressure because of their effort.

“That’s the one thing that kids can kind of somewhat control, is how their focus and their effort on the defensive end and that will give us a chance in any game,” Melle said.

He tabbed Grade 12 athlete Evan Morrison as the player who leads the Colts in scoring and rebounding and said he’s important to the team. He also noted Marodama Benjamin, his one Grade 10 kid, is their second leading scorer and rebounder and “is a good young talent.”

Melle added he’s proud of his team for what they’ve accomplished so far because of how good of a group of kids they are.

“We tell them at the end of every game and practice that we’re proud of them,” Melle said. “I don’t have a single kid that I have to yell out to work hard. They work hard every single day, they get along well, and they’ve happened to be successful. But even if we weren’t as successful as we are, they’re the type of kids that you want to coach because they show up to work hard every day, and they listen to instructions and they’re just good kids all around. So I’m very proud of them.”

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