The Sacred Heart High School Saints senior boys basketball team's season ended in Shaunavon this past weekend after falling short to the hometown club in the final game of the regional tournament.
"We wanted to make it to (3A) Hoopla, but I'm still happy with how the season went," said Saints head coach Garret Karcha. "Throughout the year this team improved big time. We have a lot to be proud of."
In their first game of the four-team tournament against Watrous, Karcha preached to his squad to prepare for a strong opponent.
"I heard Watrous has a lot of big and strong athletes, so I made sure the guys were ready for a tough game," said Karcha.
Despite going down 39-34 after the first half, Sacred Heart came away with a 67-52 victory.
"When we were down after the second half, I just told the grade 12ers that this could be their last high school basketball game," said Karcha. "They didn't take that lightly and came out strong in the second half. They only allowed Watrous to score 14 points, which is really impressive. We also went on a 16-1 run that really swung the momentum in our favour."
In the final game of the regional tourney, the Saints came up short against Shaunavon, losing 75-61.
"Shaunavon opened up with a 12-2 run, so they got an early lead," said Karcha. "Then after the first quarter they were up 19-9. We were never able to get control of the game after that. We did shoot the three-ball really well, but we were only able to get within six points."
Coming back from a knee injury, Brendon Walkington didn't take a shift off in both of the Saints' games.
"Our backup centre, David Ojo, couldn't make it to the game because of an immigration issue, so Walkington played both games from start to finish," said Karcha. "He played good and didn't show much rust from his injury. He was the leading scorer in our first game and played well in our second game, too."
Besides Walkington, Carter Ruff, Colin Shewchuk, Carter MacKay, and Garret Betker turned heads for Sacred Heart.
"Ruff led the team in scoring in the second game," said the head coach. "He played really well for us. Carter MacKay and Colin Shewchuk played well. They were two of our better players. And Garret Betker scored 14 points in the first game, which was a season high for him. So he stepped up for us when we needed him to."
The Saints would like to wish the best of luck to the Yorkton Regional High School Raiders in their quest to win Hoopla in Saskatoon this upcoming weekend.
