2014 Jr. Grand Am Tournament

This weekend we traveled to Grand Forks for the 25th Annual Jr. Grand Am basketball tournament.  There were 28 teams in the 5th Grade bracket, including some of our local rivals, the Bismarck Storm, Bismarck Bombers, and Bismarck Rough Justice.  There was also a team we have never heard of called the Bismarck Bison, which we learned was made up of the best players of the Cougars and the Fire teams from Bismarck.

The first team on our schedule was the Winnipeg Jr Bison.  Rumor has it they were actually 6th graders.  These were not confirmed.  The Mavs led by 14 at halftime.  That lead evaporated in the 2nd half, and the opponents tied it up at the buzzer.  Overtime.  1 minute long.  No one scored.  2nd OT is sudden death.  Mavs win the tip.  Jaxon gets fouled and gets 2 free throws.  Misses the first one.  Swishes the 2nd.  Game over.

This is the only pic I took of this game.  I sadly discovered I only had a partial charge of my camera battery, and neglected to bring my charger.

Game 2 was this morning at 8 am, our worst time to play.  This game was against the West Fargo Hurricanes.  We beat them the first round last year by a safe margin.  Not much different this year, only it was a more physical and fast paced game.  2 of their players, well...they played a little dirty.  They were provoking Jaxon-shoving him, grabbing his jersey, etc...Jaxon did well by not reacting.  We won by 18.  This game was played on the main basketball floor of Betty Engelstad Arena, where the Fighting Sioux play their games.  It was cool.

Game 3 was against Woodllake.  This is a team from the Spirit Lake Reservation that we have not played before.  They.  Were.  Big.  We were down by 4 at halftime, and ended up winning by 4.  Our starters played the majority of this game.  The Central Cass 4th grade team (which included Will Ellison, son of Todd Ellison) played after us.  It appeared that the Casselton fans were cheering for our team.

Game 4 was against Winnipeg Jr Alliance.  They had 2 big players, who could actually move around.  We trailed by as much as 11 in the first half, then closed the gap to 5 by halftime.  Not long into the 2nd half we took the lead and ended up winning by 7 (I think....).  Jonathan had a lot of playtime in this game, as Jaxon had foul trouble early.  Our team looked pretty tired!  It's hard to play such tough games with so little rest time in between.  Aye Aye Aye.  Mama was tense after all these close games.  Bismarck Rough Justice was playing on the court next to us.  They lost by fairly large margin to Winnipeg Spirit.  We have lost both of our matches to RJ this year.

Championship game was against Winnipeg Spirit.  The boys again got to play on the big court at the Betty.  They have announcers for the Championship games, and have an announcer call the game.  We were down early, but took the lead half way through the first half.  Let by 6 at half time.  The Spirit came within 2 near the end of the game, but the Mavs WON by 4!  Very physical game!  I saved my camera battery just in case for this game.

 Jonathan driving the baseline

 Kicks the ball out to Jaxon

 Jaxon scores on this shot!

 They were done jumping up and down and hugging by the time I took my picture.  

 Rough Justice took 3rd on the court next us.  Their game finished ~5 minutes before ours.  They watched the rest of our game for the corner of the court and cheered us on.  When our team gathered at the bench after their celebrating, the RJ kids all came over to congratulate them.  How awesome is that!

Players were announced individually to receive their medals.

The boys had to play from behind their 3 final games.  They showed great team play and hustle.  Last year, they would get frazzled when they got behind.  This year they showed patience!  What a great way to end our season.