PCI's varsity basketball teams opened their West Winnipeg Athletic Conference Tier 2 season last night against St. James in Portage la Prairie.

The Saints knocked off the Jimmies 37-35. They were down 19-17 after the first quarter but their offense came to life and came through for the win. Saints' Justice Bryson finished the day with 12 points. She explains what was going wrong in the start.

Bryson going up for a layup.

"At first we were getting flustered because we were down, quite a bit, but we fought back. Our attitude completely changed, which helped us out a lot because once our body language is down, we're all down."

The Saints next game is Monday in Winnipeg.

The varsity Trojans didn't fare so well in their opening match and fell 74-57 to the Jimmies. Grade 12 forward Bryce Rose had 13 points on the night. He says they knew the Jimmies were a 3-point team and it took them a little too long to defend.

"We were a little slow getting out on the shooters at the start but I thought once we put the 1-3-1 zone in we were shutting them down on the outside and forcing them to drive and make bad shots."

Rose shoots a basket over the defender.

The Trojans are in St. James' tournament which starts Tuesday. "We definitely need to work on our defense," says Rose. "Getting out on the shooters and being able to play a full game, that's important."

Their first match of the tournament is at 4:30 against Nelson Mac.

In Zone 7 high school basketball, MacGregor's JV girls won 22-15 over Minnedosa. The Varsity clubs welcome Elton Tuesday. The girls are up first at 5 p.m. The boys go at 6:30.