The Sacred Heart Saints may have come away from this past weekend鈥檚 exhibition tournament at the YRHS with an 0-3 record, but that doesn鈥檛 mean there weren鈥檛 any positives.
鈥淲e got a lot of compliments from teams that we鈥檝e played in the past. Some of the Regional coaches and even Sam (Twumasi) from Melville and the Swan River coach said we looked pretty good,鈥� said Sacred Heart head coach Garrett Karcha. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know if we can say that鈥檚 good when we still lost the games, but we鈥檝e improved a lot over the year and I was really excited about that.鈥�
One of the areas that the Saints have certainly improved on since the opening tipoff of the season is the offensive side of things 鈥� an aspect of the game that Sacred Heart struggled with early on in the season.
As of late, however, the Saints have turned it on, eclipsing the 70-point plateau twice in their past three games, losing 80-71 to Swan Valley and 80-73 to Brandon 鈥� Neelin. 鈥淲e were offensively challenged to start the year, so to come in here and score 70-plus points twice against two of the top Manitoba teams and even putting up nearly 70 points against Estevan earlier, those are positives for us,鈥� offered Karcha. 鈥淕oing forward I think that鈥檚 something that our offence can build off of.鈥�
But with the good comes the bad, as the Saints鈥� defence 鈥� a defence that has been strong all season long, keeping the opposition chances to a minimum - has taken a hit, with the Saints giving up 80 points twice in their past three games; something Karcha knows he has to address should the Saints want to advance past the Regional stage and into the SHSAA 4A Hoopla competition. 鈥淚 can see that we had some defensive trouble this weekend, so that鈥檚 something that we鈥檒l have to work on this week,鈥� mentioned the Saints鈥� head coach, admitting that the team has been focusing more on offence as of late. 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 even practice defence this last week; we were all about offence, so we need to change gears and take a look at our defence now.鈥�
Karcha believes that if the Saints can buckle down defensively, then they鈥檒l have a good shot this coming weekend at Regionals of pulling off a few upsets and possibly advancing to Hoopla due to the fact that they鈥檙e hitting their stride at the perfect time of the season. 鈥淕oing forward I feel very confident with our chances in the playoffs,鈥� said Karcha, continuing, 鈥淲e might surprise some teams, because we鈥檙e playing our best basketball right now and we鈥檙e a different team than we were earlier in the year when they saw us last, so we can surprise them and some teams that haven鈥檛 seen us before if we鈥檙e slotted against a Saskatoon or a Regina team.鈥�
The Sacred Heart Saints open their 2015/16 SHSAA 4A Regional competition up this Friday as they take on the Saskatoon 鈥� Bedford Road Redhawks at 6:00p.m. in Moose Jaw at Central High School.
