Carlton poses with their BRIT consolation victory hardware after defeating Walter Murray 69-61 at Bedford Road Collegiate in Saskatoon on Jan. 10, 2026. (Bedford Road Invitational Tournament)

By Logan Lehmann

Bringing home hardware

Carlton takes home consolation win at BRIT

Jan 13, 2026 | 4:15 PM

Although not winning it all, the Carlton Crusaders senior boys basketball team didn’t leave their tournament in Saskatoon empty handed this past weekend.

The Cru battled in one of Canada’s most prestigious high school tournaments at the 56th annual Bedford Road Invitational Tournament (BRIT), coming away as the consolation champions with a 2-1 record.

Carlton head coach Randy Emmerson said he was pleased with how the team has progressed following the Christmas break.

“We’re starting to play more like a team defensively and starting to show a little bit more diversity [and] creativity on the offensive end.”

Carlton senior Draco Pamaran (#13) puts up a floater over a Carson Graham defender during their game on Jan. 10, 2026. (Bedford Road Invitational Tournament)

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The Crusaders squared off with Magrath High School from Alberta in their opening game on Friday evening, where Carlton fell 84-52 to start the tournament. The loss sent them into the consolation bracket, where they won their next game 69-54 over Carson Graham Secondary from B.C. to advance to the finals. There, they avenged a loss earlier in the season against Saskatoon’s Walter Murray as Carlton won 69-61 to win the consolation. On the other side of the tournament, Magrath went on to win BRIT 56 with a 70-60 triumph in the finals over Dakota Collegiate from Winnipeg.

Carlton senior Zane Litzenberger was also honoured as one of five tournament All-Stars.

“In a tournament with 12 teams, coming from B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, to be showing up and playing as he did is a real feather in his cap. He shows extremely high levels of intensity, he’s a leader within our team with how he plays and how he interacts with the others, and his defensive effort this weekend was sensational.”

Carlton’s Zane Litzenberger (#11) was the Cru’s lone All-Star at BRIT. (Bedford Road Invitational Tournament)

Together, the Crusaders were also named the most sportsmanlike team of the tournament.

“[It’s] something that I think our young men need to really be proud of and the school should be proud of as well. We’re creating not only strong basketball teams, but we’ve got outstanding young men that are starting to realize that sport is only one part of their life and how they represent themselves, their families, and their school is equally as important.”

Following BRIT, Carlton now gears up for another tournament this coming weekend in Estevan. That will be followed by four more tournaments before conference playoffs begin in March, including events in Saskatoon, Moose Jaw, North Battleford, and Edmonton.

“We have to take the perspective of the only measuring stick that we have at this point, and that’s thinking about our own quality of play. We’ve talked as a team about, after BRIT and before Walter Murray, how we might be seen as something that’s a bit of an opportunity for other teams to take aim at us because we are showing quite strongly. We can’t be worried about that. We’ve got to make sure that we continue to develop on a path that’ll get us to our eventual goal, and that’s to be playing the best we can at the end of the year and having a strong showing at regionals and a really strong showing again this year at HOOPLA.”

So far this season, Carlton is one of the strongest ranked high school teams in the province with an 11-4 record.

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loganc.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com