Basketball players in Grades 8 through 10 wrapped up their 2008 high school season at this year's Yukon Territorial Championships.

The three local high schools were all treated to great games over the three day event, which concluded Saturday with a medal round played exclusively at FH Collins Secondary School.

"I saw some great games," said Tim Brady, president of Basketball Yukon. "I saw some very young kids play a real exciting style of basketball, which was great to see. I think as the tournament went on the last three days all the kids showed improvement, all the teams showed improvement."

Twenty teams participated in the tournament, including one from Haines Junction and one from Watson Lake.

Teams played a total of four games between Thursday and Friday.

There were two main age divisions for players at the tournament, being Grade 8 and then 9 and 10 combined. Boys' and girls' teams were also split up into separate competition.

All three Whitehorse schools had at least one team representative in each age and gender divisions

Games consisted of four ten minute quarters and a brief break at the conclusion of the second.

The top two teams in each division faced off against each other in Saturday's gold medal game, while the third and fourth place squads competed for the bronze.

FH Collins qualified for the finals for both the boys' and girls' Grades 9/10 teams.

Each game was played in front of a large group of fans on both sides of the gym. In the girls' gold medal game, FH beat Porter Creek Secondary by a score of 61-39, while the boys' team from FH lost to Vanier Catholic Secondary School 78-52.

The 9/10 FH girls' team were the tournament favourites and came into the event with only one loss on the season, which was to Porter Creek.

After going undefeated in round robin play, FH got off to a somewhat slow start, falling behind by a score of 4-0. It didn't take the group long to rally though and after trailing by four, they went on a 15-1 run to close out the first quarter.

Porter Creek played a great second quarter, outscoring FH by one point to finish the half trailing 27-18.

Cheers for both teams could be heard after every basket that was made.

The game really picked up in the third quarter and both teams showed off their offensive talents. PC closed their deficit to just nine points by the conclusion of the third and scored 14 points in total.

The third quarter came to a close with FH ahead 43-34.

In the fourth quarter, a two-point basket brought Porter Creek within nine points once again, but that would be as close as the team would get. Despite FH's lead, both teams competed hard, diving for loose balls and attacking the basket.

The majority of the crowd was delighted with FH's 61-39 victory.

High scorers for FH included Dhana Beatty, who was named to the All-Star team, with 21 points. The tournament MVP for the 9/10 girls' division was Claire Abbott, who scored 20 points in the victory

Abbott said it felt great to win the tournament and that it was more special because of the fact that the game was played at FH.

"You have lots of people that support you and you're used to the gym, so it is easier to play in the gym that you go to school every day," she said.

Abbot is in Grade 8, but because of her talent in the sport was invited out to play on the 9/10 team. She said that the team was nervous at first and getting over that helped with the victory.

"Our team is really good and we are all friends and that helps out."

Megan Freese is one of the coaches on FH's 9/10 girl's team. She said the girls played an awesome game.

"We are very pleased with that outcome," she said. "The girls are very happy and we are very proud of them, they played a great tournament. We have strong team and we knew coming in to it that we were strong, we just had to be careful of good passes and not get too overconfident."

The boys' 9/10 team from Vanier proved to be too powerful for the squad from FH. Vanier played four great quarters, closing out the first leading 23-11.

After trailing 41-21 at the end of the second quarter, FH played an outstanding third, scoring 17 points, but still were behind by 18.

In the end, Vanier was too tough of an opponent and played four solid quarters of basketball, scoring an outstanding 23 points to close out the last quarter of the game.

Vanier's high scorers were boys' 9/10 tournament MVP Nathan Doiran with 21 points, while Ryan Sutherland also played a great game scoring 13 points. Bryson McLauchlan had a strong outing, finishing with 12 points.

Riley Simpson-Flowler led the way in scoring for FH with 21 points, while Aaron Hutchinson contributed 13 in the loss.

Mike Reynolds is a director for Basketball Yukon. He said the players were one of the reasons why the tournament was so successful this year.

"We had a group come in from the communities, Watson Lake and Haines Junction, and they were, I think, very special," he said. "They played for each other, really embodied what we wanted to have represent our sport this weekend. Good kids playing hard for the whole game."

Reynolds said he wasn't surprised by how well the kids played this weekend.

"We have been working with these kids in different programs through Basketball Yukon for a while and very familiar with the majority of the kids here and very pleased with how they are performing, but I can't say we are surprised." he said. "They have put in a lot of time."

He said the tournament also benefits from the help of volunteers from the community.

"We had people at the score table, running the score clock and I didn't know who they were. I am sure glad they were here, but without those people we couldn't run a tournament like this," Reynolds said. "So this, in fact is a community event, it transcends the board of Basketball Yukon and our players."

Tyler Milligan was a player on the bronze medal winning Porter Creek Rams boys' 9/10 team. He said the team was hoping for gold, but still had a lot to be pleased about.

"We worked really hard all season and we really wanted this. Our coach (Paul McDonald) really wanted this, considering this was his birthday and he kept laying that card out all the time," Milligan said. "I guess we are happy with it because we have all grown stronger."

When asked if bronze was a good enough present for McDonald, he said although the team was disappointed, they were able to laugh at it afterwards.

Milligan is in Grade 10 and with the bronze, has won every medal there is to win at this tournament. He plans on training over the summer and then trying out for the seniors' team for next year's high school season.

Other gold medal winners of the 2008 tournament included the Grade 8 Porter Creek boys' team and the Grade 8 Vanier girls' team.