Canada Games hoops team to meet VEBA all-stars

BY JOHN DECOSTE

jdecoste@kentvilleadvertiser.ca

NovaNewsNow.com

Basketball fans looking for some top-level off-season action might want to drop by the Horton High gym next Friday evening.

Nova Scotia Canada Games boys’ team and provincial U-17 boys’ team coach Tim Kendrick has confirmed the Canada Games team will play a team of past and present VEBA all-stars in a 7:30 p.m. start.

The VEBA roster will include such current and former Horton players as Ellis Ffrench, Joe Kendrick, Jeremy Dunn, Sage Tanner, Stephen Traynor, Jake Kendrick, Josh Thomas and Neal McGill and NKEC’s Travis Pearson.

Thomas Baltzer, a Grade 11 student at Central Kings, and Chris Babin, in Grade 11 at Horton, are the local-area players on the Canada Games team. Babin, a Hantsport native who was originally the final cut from the Games squad, has since been returned to the roster to replace another player who left the team. “It should be a good game for the fans, and a fun game, too, with some really good basketball,” said Kendrick, who is quite familiar with both the Canada Games and VEBA rosters.

The Canada Games team is currently training and preparing for this year’s Summer Games scheduled for August in P.E.I.

Strong showing in P.E.I.

Kendrick noted the Nova Scotia squad recently placed first in a pre-Games tournament on P.E.I. involving the Maritime provincial teams as well as Holland College.

Nova Scotia defeated New Brunswick 96-61 (after trailing by 22 points at halftime), topped P.E.I. 87-37 and beat Holland College 116-84, scoring 65 points in the second half of the latter game.

The Canada Games team is traveling to Memphis, TN in a couple of weeks to play in an AAU tournament featuring the top 24 university teams in the Southern U.S.

The team will also play in a pre-Games tournament in Winnipeg in late July along with the Games teams from six other provinces, including B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Kendrick suggested the Nova Scotia squad is coming along well in preparation for this summer’s competition, led by good performances from Rodell Wigginton, Mandrez Downey, Geoff Doane and Tyler Scott.

Admission for the June 12 game will be $4 for adults and $2 for students. Coach Kendrick is looking for a good crowd for what he says should be a fun and entertaining match-up.