Snow hit the basketball league schedule hard over the past two weeks with several regular league games and area tournaments being cancelled or teams failing to show up for their games.
But JV Wildcat boys’ and girls’ teams hosted their peers from Red Deer’s Hunting Hill High School on Monday, Jan. 17 with both of the local teams losing to the visitors.
In the girls’ game, which ended 36-24 in favor of the Hunting Hill Lightning, the visiting team appeared more coordinated with better skills to control and move the ball.
JV girl Wildcats found it difficult to dribble and pass, especially when confronted with the one-on-one defense game of the visitors.
Hunting Hill girls also had a higher shooting percentage.
As for the boys, in their first home game, they struggled for the most part of the game in the face of fast-passing and targeted shooting from the visitors.
The Wildcat boys lost the game 69-54.
“Our boys showed definite improvement in their ability to score, but the Lightning’s three point shooters were right on target Monday night,” said coach Warren Aspenes.
“They proved to be too much to handle for our defense.”
Senior Wildcat boys, who have not played for two weeks due to canceled engagements, will have their first game after the long break on Thursday, in Stettler.
It will be an exhibition game at the high school gym at 5.15 p.m.
As for senior girl Wildcats, they played their first game after the Christmas break against Ponoka and won 48 - 39.
“The game was tight throughout, even allowing them to be up by a few points by second half,” said coach Rachelle Campeau.
“The girls kept their game on track and played as a team to come back and pull ahead to secure the win.”
Senior girls also had to cancel their trip to Caroline last weekend for a tournament.
They will not be playing until Feb. 1, when they will travel to Camrose.
Immediately after that, both senior girl and boy basketball teams will travel north to Bonnyville to partake in a tournament on Feb 4 and 5.