The Niverville Collegiate Institute and the Pinawa Secondary School varsity boys basketball teams have a couple of things in common.

Both Zone 13 teams have the same school nickname and both are in possession of a Provincial High School Championship Banner.

The Niverville Panthers captured the AA final in Gretna.

"We were all pretty excited," said Panthers grade 12 guard Keegan Beer. "It took four years to finally win so that felt pretty good. We've had a couple of upsets. We were the number one seed in JV and lost in the final and last year we chocked in the semifinals so it felt good to win the finals this year."

Niverville has the second seed at the 2017 Provincials and lost 73-68 to the host MacGregor Mustangs in the semis.

This years Panthers team was seeded number one and defeated the Gimli Lakers 89-60 in the quarterfinals; beat Frontier Collegiate of Cranberry Portage 100-50 in the semifinals and then downed the defending champion Carman Cougars 76-40 in the final.

"I think we were just more motivated and it felt like as a team we had better chemistry and we could just roll through everybody," said Beer.

As for the 36-point victory over the Cougars.

"They had quite a few turnovers and I think we got inside their heads and they weren't able to beat our press," Beer explained. "We took advantage of those turnovers and had easy layups."

Parker Davis and Austin Anderson of the Panthers were named to the All-Star team while Beer was chosen the Provincial MVP.

"I was super excited. It's something I had been working towards most of my high school career and it felt good to finally get that."

 

The Pinawa Panthers are the 2018 Provincial A High School Varsity Boys Basketball Champions

 
The Pinawa Panthers won the Provincial A title in Treherne.

The Panthers defeated Dufferin Christian 81-52 in the quarterfinals; beat William Morton of Gladstone 81-68 in the semifinals and then edged the host Tigers 54-49 in the championship game.

"We've come so far," said Pinawa guard Noah Parr. "It was great to see the seconds come down. Our coach (Brent Berry) prepared us really well for the game and our team was so locked in."

The Panthers were the third seed in Treherne and Parr explained why they were able to hold off the host team who were the top seed at the provincials.

"Staying locked in and ignoring the crowd and just preparing mentally and physically before the game. We had to be hungry for the ball, make sure our shots went in and we played super hard."

Pinawa's Adam Kerr was named to the All-Star team while Parr was selected the MVP of the provincials.

"Honestly I was a little surprised because I feel anyone on our team could have won. Everyone works so hard and especially our coach. He just helps us out a lot, mentally prepares us for the game and gets us hyped up."

Noah Parr has one more year of high school basketball left and is already looking forward to December.

"I can't wait. It's going to be a good year. A big year for us hopefully."