The L.V. Rogers Junior Bombers basketball squad continues its strong season despite a temporary shortened line-up.
This past weekend the locals hosted the Bomber Invitational at The Hangar in Fairview. They had to play with a depleted squad as several key players were absent.
On Friday, the Bombers opened the Invitational playing against their rival J.L. Crowe from Trail in front of an eager student body. With three starters away and a shortened bench of 10 players they managed a three point victory over the Hawks; 50-47.
“It was a tough game defensively,” said Bombers coach Steve Montgomery. “We had some tough match-ups with Trail’s best players.”
Grayson Arabia scored a team high 21 points and Avery Kushner chipped in 15 in the win.
Saturday morning the Bombers met the provincially-ranked Golden Eagles and suffered their worst defeat of the season; 79-21.
The Bombers had only seven players against the Eagles and were outgunned from the start.
“We didn’t have our full contingent of guards. Usually we have six to eight skilled guards that we can roll out and press with, but we didn’t have enough bodies to use our strength — our pressure,” said Montgomery.
Missing Tobin Eberle at post was also a really tough thing against Golden, who had excellent play from their three big men.
Next weekend the Bombers will be returning to Golden to play the Eagles with a full team roster.
In the final game of the Invitational and with only eight players, the Bombers racked up another win against Rossland 51-48. The win improved their team record to 14-0 locally and 15-4 overall.
Arabia had 22 points to lead the Bombers with Kushner and Bean Howard chipping in with 16 and six points respectively.
Matthew Stachniak, Zach Montgomery and James Janz were instrumental in out-rebounding and shutting down the Trail and Rossland big men this weekend. Guards Hanno Southam and Cole Sutherland were also extremely effective with their defense and rebounding.
On Tuesday night the Bombers returned to the The Hangar hardwood with the same shortened bench to take on J.L.. Crowe in league play.
In a strange outcome the Bombers ended up losing 47-44. At least that’s what the score clock and the official scoresheet showed. However, during a crucial point in the fourth quarter, four points that the Bombers scored were missed or not counted by the score keepers on the score clock or the official score sheet. Efforts to correct the situation were unsuccessful.
Next action for the Bombers is Monday when they travel west to Grand Forks to play the Junior Wolves with the full team back and ready for action.