The Yorkton Regional High School Raiders stole the Sacred Heart Saints' thunder this past weekend at their four-team senior boys' basketball tournament. They went undefeated on their rival's turf, overshadowing the Saints' 1-2 showing.
The Raiders squared off against the Saints to kick off the round-robin tourney on Friday. They stayed in control of the game from start to finish, taking the match 68-49.
"We came out with good intensity on defence and good transition opportunities," says Raiders head coach Jason Payne. "Our defensive did its job, holding them to 49 points. All in all it was a solid effort."
The victory over the school down the block was extra sweet for the Raiders.
"It's always nice to beat a rival team," says Payne. "The kids call these Gladstone battles. They're always fun and exciting. This one was no exception."
Saints head coach Garrett Karcha wasn't taken off guard by the loss. He knew his young squad was in tough against the Raiders.
"It went as we expected," says Karcha. "We're a re-building team right now. The Regional has some strong players. We came in with a plan and I thought it was okay. But their pressure ultimately made us come to our doom."
Karcha looked at the bright side after the loss, noting some of his players had strong performances.
"Defensively, Brendan Walkington and Carter Mackay, they defensively shut them down on the inside and that's what we wanted to do," says Karcha. "As well as Colin Suchuck and Carter Mackay played well offensively."
The Saints quickly turned their attention to their next match against Melville after the loss.
"We played Melville the first game of the year and we lost by one point," says Karcha. "In the last 30 seconds, they scored a bucket on us. The Melville game is the game we are really focused on. We want to come back and play a bit better than we did."
Sacred Heart redeemed themselves in more ways than one with a huge 54-32 win over Melville.
"We knew how to play against Melville," says Karcha. "That helped us beat them. The first time we played them we didn't really know what to expect. And we didn't play strong the first time. We played a good game this time."
The Regional kept the ball rolling in their second contest, dominating Canora by a score of 88-49.
"The first half was tight, but we took over in the second half," says Payne on the Canora game. "We wore them down and stuck to our game plan."
The Raiders wrapped up their tournament with a 63-27 win over Melville.
The Regional used the miss-match opportunity to give significant minutes to some of their younger players.
"It was a good opportunity to fine-tune some things," says Payne. "We were able to give some guys some minutes that they weren't getting in games like last weekend in Saskatoon."
The Raiders' Daniel Mandziuk shined bright in the tourney. He consistently finished plays, made takeaways, and grabbed rebounds.
Payne gave credit to his star player, speaking very highly of Mandziuk.
"I think he's as good as a player you'll find anywhere in the province," says Payne. "His basketball IQ is off the charts. That's a problem that teams have to deal with."
The Saints went into their final game not knowing what to expect from Canora.
"We aren't familiar with Canora at all," says Karcha. "We haven't played them in like six years. We know they won their conference last year. So they're going to be a good team."
Sacred Heart started out strong, but fell apart in the second half of the game. They blew a nine-point lead in the third quarter, going on to lose 50-57.
"We had a lot of turnovers, I'm not sure if the guys were getting tired or what, but we weren't protecting the ball," says Karcha. "They got some good shots and we couldn't finish on some of our chances."
Karcha isn't happy with the Saints' overall performance, believing they underachieved.
"I'm not happy with the outcome," says Karcha. "We would have liked to get two wins at least. But we'll take what we did wrong and work on it at practice."
The Raiders and Saints are now on basketball holidays until after the Christmas break.
