The Sacred Heart Saints senior boys鈥� basketball team took to the road this past weekend for a six team basketball tournament in Esterhazy, where they managed to finish third overall despite compiling a 1-2 record through three games.
The Saints opened the tournament against Rocanville; a team highly regarded as one of the top 2A teams in the province.
Sacred Heart got off to a quick start early, scoring 19 points in the first quarter to take a 19-15 lead into the second, where the Rocanville defence tightened up, allowing the Saints just nine points in the second quarter.
Rocanville themselves scored 15 points in the second to take a 30-28 lead into halftime.
The third quarter saw the Saints come out with renewed vigor, outscoring Rocanville 13-11 in the third quarter before scoring 18 points in the final quarter while holding Rocanville to just 10 for a 59-51 Sacred Heart victory.
Jake Javier led all Saints in scoring with 16 points while also picking up four steals. Grade 12 captain Tannum Wyonzek also had a strong game with a double-double, scoring 12 points and hauling in 10 rebounds while Bryan Buzinski also hit double digits in scoring with 11 points.
Defensive stalwart Brody Kormos imposed his will on the Rocanville offence, pulling down 12 defensive rebounds and adding six more offensive boards to finish with a team high 18 rebounds in the game.
The win propelled the Saints into the 鈥楢鈥� side grouping with the host Esterhazy Warriors and Humboldt Collegiate Mohawks, while Rocanville was sent to the 鈥楤鈥� side grouping with Melville and Kamsack.
The Saints鈥� first 鈥楢鈥� side game saw them take on the hometown Esterhazy Warriors.
The Saints trailed Esterhazy by just three points at halftime, 24-21, but simply could not find a way to combat the Warriors in the second half as the hosts pulled away from Sacred Heart, outscoring the Saints 38-21 in the final two quarters to hand Sacred Heart a 62-42 setback.
Javier once again led the Sacred Heart attack with 14 points and seven steals while Wyonzek once again picked up a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
The loss dropped the Saints鈥� tournament record to 1-1 heading into their final game of the 鈥楢鈥� Group against the Humboldt Mohawks; a team that, like Sacred Heart, will be competing for the 4A provincial crown.
Unfortunately for Sacred Heart they could not repeat their performance from Game One of the tournament as Humboldt dominated on both ends of the court, handing Sacred Heart a 65-34 loss.
Javier, just as he has done for much of the season, led the Saints鈥� offence in the loss tallying nine points while Nathan Cochrane was the second highest Saint scorer in the game with seven.
Brody Kormos and Evan Gleason chipped in with six points each while Noah Clarke led the Saints in rebounds with seven. Kormos had six. 鈥淲e knew that Humboldt would be tough,鈥� Sacred Heart head coach Garrett Karcha told Yorkton This Week via a phone interview Sunday evening. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e in our division, 4A, with us, so we knew we wanted to play a strong game against them.
鈥淲e kept it close throughout the first half, but then they just really extended their lead in the end.鈥�
Karcha then went on to say that no one in particular stood out from this past tournament. Instead, everyone had some high points show in their game. 鈥淚t was pretty much a combined effort this weekend but in terms of anybody really standing out, I wouldn鈥檛 say there was anyone that stood out really well.
鈥淭he majority of the minutes probably went to Jake Javier, Tannum Wyonzek and Brody Kormos. They played the majority of the minutes but everybody did well, everybody took a shot and almost everybody scored this weekend.鈥�
Next action
The next action for the Sacred Heart Saints senior boys鈥� basketball team will be this Friday and Saturday when they host Melville, Moosomin and Swan River for a four team tournament. Sacred Heart kicks off their tournament play Friday at 4:00p.m. against Melville.
All games are at the Halo Dome.
