Two Vancouver area teams and Bella Bella qualify for All Native Tourney in February

Prince Rupert's Civic Centre complex played host to the Qualifying
Tournament for the All Native Basketball Tournament with eight
teams contesting three open spots on the court of the Russell Gamble Gymnasium

Three days of high tempo basketball at the Russel Gamble gymnasium delivered three qualifying teams for February's All Native Seniors Basketball Tournament, with Saturday's action providing for the three final spots in the Seniors Division, with three teams moving forward to the big show in 2019.

Vancouver, North Shore (Squamish) and Bella Bella came out of the field of eight to punch their ticket to the annual event with the two Vancouver area teams battling it out in the final on Saturday.

Results from the three days of play from Thursday to Saturday were:

Thursday

Kispiox 48 / Bella Bella 79

Klemtu 34 / North Shore 92

Kincolith 83 / Lytton 54

Terrace 44 / Vancouver 122

Bella Bella 68 / North Shore 74

Kincolith 87 / Vancouver 107


Friday

Kispiox 88 / Klemtu 64

Lytton / Terrace (Lytton by default)

Bella Bella 74 / Kispiox 66

Kincolith 73 / Lytton 107

North Shore 79 / Vancouver 91

Bella Bella 88 / Lytton 80


Saturday

North Shore / Bella Bella

Vancouver 86 / North Shore 76


The Seniors tourney was the only one of the four of tournament time that required a qualifying round this year.

The line up February tournament will bring fifty teams to Prince Rupert for the week of February 10 to 16, a look at each division can be found below.

Bella Bella, VanCity and North Shore(Squamish) all made the cut for
the Seniors tournament for February, click above to expand
the full list of participating teams in February

The planning now moves into the final stages for the February event, the sixtieth anniversary of a tournament that brings athletes and residents of First Nation communities from across British Columbia and Alaska to Prince Rupert.

You can keep up to date on the latest news out of the All Native Tournament offices from their website and Facebook page.

This year the ANBT has also introduced an Instagram feed to capture all of the moments for the six days in Rupert.

We also have an archive of items of note related to the tournament which you can access here.

To return to the most recent blog posting of the day, click here.