After a week of intense action at the Jim Cicconne Civic Centre's Arena and Russell Gamble Gymnasium, the 62nd Annual All Native Basketball Tournament comes to a close today with some great matchups to bring the event to its conclusion.
Teams have fallen to the sidelines through the week, others battled back from early struggles to make a run of the event to take advantage of a second shot at glory and today those with the most determination or perhaps a few good bounces of a basketball have made there way through to Championship Saturday.
There are still a few places to fill on the Saturday dance card however, with a pair of Semi-Finals set for this morning to secure placement in the final games of the 2022 tournament.
Intermediate
On the court Bright and Early on a snowy Saturday in Prince Rupert is the hometown side the Cubs taking on Bella Bella they took to the court at 9AM.
Burnaby charted the shorter course to the championship berth, making a direct line from Monday to Friday's semi final win over Bella Bella.
Update: Prince Rupert took an early lead and never looked back to grab a berth in the Final with 91-42 victory.
Prince Rupert will take on Burnaby at 6:30 In the Intermediate Championship
Womens Division
Two highly entertaining teams bring the Women's Division to a close for 2022, with Similkameen and Vancouver making their way through the challenging field, both growing stronger with each game along the way.
Similkameen will be the more rested of the two, with the Vancouver side having had to take the more circuitous route to the Saturday finale. The two teams last met on Wednesday in a match which was dominated by the Similkameen side.
The Women's final this year marks the first in four years that does not feature the Haisla as the last team standing following an amazing run, making for the first new champion to come in the division after the remarkable three years of dominance for Kitamaat
Smilkameen and Vancouver hit the court at 1PM
Masters Division
The Nass will be well represented in the Master's Finale to tournament week, with Gitwinksilkhw and New Aiyansh navigating the challenges of the last six days to make their way to Championship match.
On Thursday, the New Aihansh side the topped Gitwinksihlkw to book their ticket to the Final.
The rematch was set on Friday afternoon, when Kincolith found themselves on the wrong side of the scoreboard in their Semi Final matchup with Gitwinksilhkw
The Masters of The Nass Valley have their showdown at 2:30 PM
Seniors
A 10:30 start this morning will settle the final placement for the Seniors Final with Skidegate and Metlakatla Alaska hitting the court, the Alaskans making their way through to the Semis with a convincing win late Friday evening.
The winner of the Seniors Semis take on Kitkatla which has had a remarkable run at this years event. The charted their course the finals with win over Skidegate on Friday and could meet them again depending on how the morning plays out, though the Alaskans may have something to say about that.
Update: In one of the highlight games of the tournament, Metlakatla held off the Skidegate Saints push for a comeback, topping the Haida Grains 86 to81
The Metlakatla vs Kitkatla Seniors Championship closes out the tournament event at 7:30 tonight
For those who can't make it to the Russell Gamble Gym today, all of the games are being stream cast by CFNR through their website.
More notes on the tournament can be explored through our archive page.
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