A raucous home crowd and a new game plan proved to be not enough for the sixth seeded YRHS Raiders on Friday night, as they fell 82-61 to the third ranked North Battleford Composite Vikings in round one of the SHSAA 5A Small Cities championship tournament.
The 21-point defeat put an end to the Raiders鈥� hopes of qualifying for Hoopla 鈥� Saskatchewan鈥檚 high school basketball provincial championship.
鈥淲e鈥檙e obviously disappointed with our loss against North Battleford, but we drew up a game plan that we thought would work and we executed it,鈥� said YRHS Raider head coach Jason Payne. 鈥淲e wanted to take away their perimeter shooters because they really destroyed us when we played them here at York City and we did; we did a good job taking away their perimeter shooters actually.鈥�
That they did, as the strong defence of Tyson Black, Matthew Mandziuk and Matthew Balysky among others for the most part shut down the Vikings鈥� talented grade nine duo of Riley Rathwell and Jordan Poitras.
Unfortunately however, the post combination of Karl Ottenbreit and Matt Dutton picked up the slack for the Vikings, with Dutton in particular causing problems, scoring 28 of the 82 North Battleford points. 鈥淭heir high post player had the game of his life,鈥� mentioned Payne, continuing, 鈥渂asically we decided if they were going to beat us it would have to be him and he did.鈥�
At the same time the Raiders had a hard time dealing with the Viking defence all game long, struggling to get inside on the relentless Viking pressure resulting in the Raiders鈥� having to attack from the outside 鈥� something that they unfortunately had very little success with. 鈥淭he three-point game is not our strength, but they played well on defence and we had a hard time getting things moving to the basket so that was all we had available,鈥� suggested the Raider head coach, adding that while they managed to make a few three-point shots it was ultimately not enough for the Raiders.
The loss dropped the Regional to the consolation bracket where they defeated the Prince Albert 鈥� Carlton Crusaders 85-74 to wrap up their 2015/16 campaign with a win and send their four graduating players 鈥� guards Tyson Black and Nick Payne and forwards/posts Caleb Bymak and Daniel Sparrowhawk 鈥� off into high school basketball retirement with a victory. 鈥淚t鈥檚 always nice to end your season with a victory, and it was nice to see the grade 12鈥檚 finish their career with a good win like that,鈥� said Payne, adding that while it鈥檚 tough to see players like that leave, Payne said he feels confident that they鈥檒l find success in their lives after high school basketball. 鈥淎ll four of them are good kids who are headed in the right direction and I know they鈥檙e going to be successful in anything they do because all four of them are so dedicated.鈥�
