Like the girls’ team, the F.H. Collins boys were looking to repeat as Jamie Shaw Memorial Tournament champions, but they were in tough against a strong Vanier Crusaders team.

The Crusaders got off to a strong start and they were able to hold off a second-half run by the Warriors to win the championship 85-76.

Although Jamie Shaw, worked and coached at F.H. Collins, he was also involved in the basketball community outside school hours. Vanier coach, Sean McCarron, had coached both with and against Shaw.

“I’ve been known to be a pretty intense coach and Jamie was great,” said McCarron as he got choked up. “We got along so well, our style was similar and we had so many battles over the years.

“I’ve coached with Jamie at various camps, a lot at Basketball Yukon, he coached so many of our Vanier kids for sure.

“He was a good man, a good coach and I learned a lot from him as well.”

Chad Williams, a guard for Vanier, said he was close to Shaw.

“Jamie was really close to me, he coached me in Grade 8,” said Williams. “So it’s really touching to win in this tournament.”

McCarron said the tournament does have a different feel to it and that most importantly is that it brings together athletes and fans for the shared love of basketball.

“I want the kids who I’m coaching, and the kids I’m coaching against to be all about playing basketball,” said McCarron. “I know we are at different schools and there is competition, but at the end of the day, we are celebrating the sport.

“If everyone just plays, good, hard basketball there is no shame in walking away with silver or bronze. In coaching with Jamie, and I’ve had the chance of coaching a bunch of F.H. girls on the Arctics team, it’s absolutely something I’ve thought about. Giving back and celebrating the game.”

Vanier got off to a dream start in the championship game. The Crusader offence, led by Williams, carved up the Warriors D for easy drives to the basket. When the defence collapsed on the driving lanes, they kicked out to open shooters who were hitting at a respectable clip.

They closed the first up 30-16.

The Crusaders offence continued to hum in the second. Williams, who finished the game with 32 points, dominated on offence. His teammate, Josh Rumboao, who finished with 25 points, found his offensive game in the second.

Vanier also crashed the glass hard, led by Sam Wanless, who pulled down 16 rebounds, five offensive, which led to second chance points.

F.H. made a small run to close out the quarter but Williams hit a high-arcing step-back three at the buzzer to make it 55-39 going into halftime.

During the intermission, two fans had the opportunity to earn $10,000. To win, they would have needed to hit a layup, free-throw, three-pointer and a halfcourt shot in 24 seconds. It was close, but both shooters went home empty-handed.

F.H. made a run in the third led by the offence of Ralph Hermosa and closed the gap to 73-62. Williams said the Crusaders were sure the Warriors were going to punch back.

“They have a good set of teammates,” said Williams. “They are really hard to play Every year it’s like that,”

Midway through the third quarter, Williams slipped while driving to the basket and hit his head off a defenders knee, forcing him to take a seat on the bench.

Vanier took a 73-66 lead into the final frame.

F.H. continued to roll and cut into the lead. Vanier’s offence went dry and it wasn’t until Williams came back into the game, when he hit a three, did the Crusaders score their first points of the quarter.

The Warriors cut the lead to four, with 4:15 remaining but Vanier clamped down on defence and Wanless had two huge blocks turning the tides.

It was a five point game with 35 seconds remaining. Out of a timeout, the Crusaders got an easy bucket off an inbounds play and hit their foul shots the rest of the way to secure the win.

When Williams went down, McCarron said he was happy with how other players stepped up and was impressed by the team’s response to F.H.’s run.

“We know F.H. will come out and hit a bunch of shots, we know that Ralph is going to take over and his teammates will feed off him,” said McCarron. “That was the halftime chat. I’ll need to call my timeouts, we’ll have multiple defences and their response to F.H.’s response showed a lot of grit.

“I’m hoping that will come in handy at the end of the year when it could very well be even tighter than what you saw tonight.”

Williams said he had faith in his teammates when he got sidelines.

“I had belief in my teammates so I wasn’t stressing that much.”

With the win, Williams said the team is focusing on their upcoming games and hopefully winning more titles.