Newfoundland and Labrador entries couldn’t come up with wins in their opening games as four national age-group basketball championships got underway Monday.
The Basketball Canada girls juvenile (under-17) and midget (U15) events are being held in Fredericton, N.B., where N.L’s U17 team dropped a 94-51 first-game decision to Saskatchewan, with Carly Stevenson leading Newfoundland with 17 points.
In the girls U15 tourney, Nova Scotia blasted N.L. 88-31, with Anja Heffernan and Ally Wilkins each scoring six points in a losing cause.
The national competitions in the same boys age groups are in Kamloops, B.C., where the Newfoundland fell 88-61 to Manitoba in U17 play Monday. Caleb d’Entremont led this province with 13 points.
It was also Manitoba over Newfoundland — by an 84-55 score — in the U15 division. Jiovanni Dilarno Drake topped N.L. with 11 points.
All games are being streamed and can be accessed through the NLBA website http://www.nlba.nf.ca/).