The gyms at Vanier Catholic Secondary School were packed Sunday evening for the Canadian-Filipino Sport Association of Yukon (CFSAY) tournaments that happen every weekend, but this one was a little bit different.

This time the large gym featured an exhibition series for the first time ever with two teams from the Whitehorse Women’s Basketball League taking on the men’s basketball teams from CFSAY.

Fans crowded the gym to take in these exhibition games on the last weekend of tournaments for CFSAY before the new year.

But not to be fooled by the term exhibition, in the first game of the series both teams came out firing and battling hard in the affair.

The CFSAY men’s team took an early lead and hung on throughout the game but they were pushed hard at points by the women’s team who took a lead near the end of the first quarter before the men scored a two-pointer at the end to lead 16-15.

Led offensively by Claire Abbott, the women’s team fought back at many points throughout the game to get within single digits.

Still tight heading into the second half, CFSAY started pulling away in the third quarter to take a double-digit lead.

But in the fourth quarter with a desperate offensive attempt to get back in the game, the women’s team got caught defensively and CFSAY pulled away to win 86-69.

Abbott recently returned to the Yukon after a post-secondary basketball career with the Nipissing University Lakers in North Bay, Ont.

Abbott had 13 of the team’s 31 points in the first half.

She will also be leading the Yukon’s junior female basketball team to the Arctic Winter Games as the head coach for the squad.

CFSAY president Aldrin Manalad said he was approached by the women’s league with the idea of an exhibition game and jumped at the opportunity to host one.

Manalad said the basketball committee organized the event and it is the first exhibition game ever between the two leagues.

“Hopefully we’ll be having more of these exhibition games sometime next year,” he said.

As well as the exhibition series, Sunday evening saw youth volleyball taking place in the small gym with four teams facing off in a tournament.

Manalad said four mini-tournaments are held every Saturday and Sunday evening at Vanier for CFSAY athletes.

The evenings start with badminton and basketball and then volleyball with chess taking place on the stage.

Following the two exhibition games, the association provided food to the participants and fans in attendance as a celebration for the final sports gathering of the year.

Manalad said the weekly tournaments will pick back up again Jan. 6.