N.W.T. basketball team sets sights on defending gold in Nuuk

The N.W.T. junior male basketball team is feeling the pressure as they gear up to leave for Greenland this week for the 2016 Arctic Winter Games that's because they have a title to defend.

The team took home gold at the 2014 Games and they want to do it again in Nuuk.

"We need to push ourselves," said point guard Kent Alacida, who was on the 2014 team.

"We can't go in and expect to win. We need to go in and feel like the underdogs and want it."

Alacida is one of only two players from the 2014 title squad that are returning to the games.

"The 2014 team was a shooting team, we are also a shooting team, but we are so fast. We can beat any team with speed and quickness," Alacida says.

The gold ulu was a first for the N.W.T. team two years ago, and Head Coach Aaron Wells says he hopes to make history again.

"We picked the team in December and we have been training hard, doing two practices a day," he said. "They are in shape and ready to go."

Wells said the team also has a size advantage this year, thanks in part to 17-year-old centre Liam Larocque. Standing six feet six inches tall, Larocque is a potential game changer.

"I am nervous," Larocque said. "We are going to try to go back and win it again."

Larocque moved to Yellowknife from Inuvik last year to play competitive basketball year-round. He said he's learned to use his size and play big.

"[This] new team is better in some ways, the old team is better in some ways. It's going to be fun."

He'll get a chance to show off his new skills March 7, when Team N.W.T. takes to the court for its first game in Nuuk against Nunavut.