An up and down weekend for the YRHS Raiders senior boys鈥� basketball team saw the Raiders finish at .500 for the weekend with a 2-2 record at the sixth annual York City Classic basketball tournament, co-hosted by both Yorkton Regional and Sacred Heart.
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The Raiders kicked off the tournament at noon on Friday against the rebuilding Lumsden Devils, jumping out to a 22-6 lead after the opening quarter and a 36-12 lead at half.
The Raiders continued to widen their lead in the second half to walk away the victors with a 76-24 win in a game that head coach Jason Payne used to get his bench players some ample playing time. 鈥淒rew (Schenk, Lumsden coach) is starting from the beginning again in Lumsden and so that gave us an opportunity to roll the bench and give everyone some good minutes and that was a good start for us,鈥� suggested Payne, adding that he saw quite a few positives from the tournament opening contest. 鈥淪ome of our younger guys are really starting to get caught up to the speed of play. Ben Koroluk has come along a long way over the course of the year.
鈥淏randt Scott has done a solid job for us all year and even some of the guys that aren鈥檛 playing as much as they would like stepped in and did their jobs which is really what we expect from them.鈥�
Down
In the second game of the tournament the Raiders found themselves taking on the North Battleford Comprehensive Vikings in a very important game.
A win would not only see the Raiders clinch first place in Group 鈥楢鈥�, but also see the Regional move ahead of the Vikings in the SHSAA 5A Rural Conference rankings.
Unfortunately a win was just not in the cards for the Raiders in their second game of the York City Classic as impressive three-point shooting from North Battleford grade nine guards Riley Rathwell and Jordan Poitras proved to be their downfall in an 80-57 loss. 鈥淭wenty three-pointers is hard to beat and they shot the ball pretty well,鈥� offered Payne. 鈥淚n the first half they were something like 9-of-14 from three point land and we鈥檙e not going to keep up with that; we don鈥檛 shoot well enough to do that so we have to stop that and we didn鈥檛 and we lost.鈥�
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The 80-57 loss to North Battleford evened the Raider record at 1-1 through the first two games, dropping the Raiders to the 鈥楤鈥� side bracket, where they met fellow 5A Rural Conference member Swift Current.
A neck-and-neck first half saw the two teams tied at 24 with six minutes left in the second quarter before the Raiders found their offensive stride, outscoring the Colts 17-4 to take a 41-28 lead into half-time.
A fairly even third quarter resulted in the Raiders outscoring the Colts by one, 22-21, to give the Regional a 63-49 lead heading into the final quarter where Swift Current would attempt to mount a comeback, narrowing the Raider lead to five before running out of time. Final score YRHS 72, Swift Current 64. 鈥淭hat game was important for us because we needed to beat them to get ahead of them in terms of seeding for playoffs,鈥� mentioned Payne, adding they鈥檒l most likely meet the Swift Current Colts again midway through the month at the Colts鈥� home tournament. 鈥淲e鈥檒l probably have to play them there and that鈥檒l be another opportunity to make sure that we stay above them, but we know we can beat them.鈥�
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The fourth and final game of the tournament for the Raiders pitted them against yet another SHSAA 5A Rural Conference rival, the Estevan Elecs.
A highly competitive game saw the two teams trade the lead several times in the first half with Estevan taking a narrow 33-32 lead into the break after Yorkton grade 10 guard Matthew Mandziuk drained a buzzer beating jump shot from 12-feet out to cut the deficit to just one.
The third quarter saw the Raiders outscore the Elecs by one to even the game at 51 heading into the fourth quarter where the Regional struggled offensively, scoring just nine points while surrendering 14 to fall 65-60.
Following the completion of the tournament coach Payne told Yorkton This Week that he was overall satisfied with the way the team played defence, but felt that, at times, their offence struggled. 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 execute very well and we weren鈥檛 running things the way we should,鈥� said Payne, continuing, 鈥淲e have a habit of sometimes not paying close enough attention to details and those little details are often the things that are the difference between success and failure so we need to pay more attention to detail.鈥�
Donation
Each year at the York City Classic the YRHS Raiders and Sacred Heart Saints raise money via donations and gate fees for a good cause. For the past few years the beneficiary was the Canadian Cancer Society with the focus on raising money for Breast Cancer awareness and cures.
This year, however, the two teams chose to donate any and all money raised to the family of YRHS grade 11 student Chad Young, who was recently diagnosed with aggressive osteosarcoma.
In total the two schools raised over 14-hundred dollars, all of which will go towards the Chad鈥檚 medical costs and travel expenses to and from Toronto.
Up next
The YRHS Sr. Raiders are currently in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, competing in the 2016 Coal Bowl invitational basketball tournament. The Raiders took on the host Breton Education Centre (NS) yesterday however results were unavailable at press time.
The Raiders are scheduled to play the Polyvalente de L鈥橝ncienne-Lorette (QC) today (Wednesday), Elwood Regional High School (NFLD) on Thursday and St. Francis Xavier High School (ON) on Friday.
The Lady Raiders are also in Cape Breton for the tournament. They took on Breton Education Centre yesterday (Tuesday) and Glace Bay High School this morning, however results were unavailable at press time. The Lady Raiders will wrap up their tournament tomorrow (Thursday) with a rematch of Tuesday night鈥檚 game against the host Breton Education Centre.
This is the second time the Sr. Raiders have attended the tournament, last making an appearance at the Coal Bowl in 2012 when they went 0-4 at the competition, falling to the host Breton Education Centre (NS) 70-51, Hants North Rural High School (NS) 58-56, Ecole Secondaire Roger Comtois (QC) 65-37 and Nechako Valley Secondary School (BC) 74-42.
