A trio of wins this past weekend in Melville saw the YRHS Raiders senior boys鈥� basketball team return home to Yorkton as Melville tournament champions.
The Raiders downed Kamsack 85-43 to open the tournament Friday evening, then handed Sacred Heart a 75-57 defeat on Sunday before dropping host Melville 66-50 to clinch their second straight tournament title.
The Regional had no trouble with both Kamsack and Sacred Heart in their first two games of the tournament, but the host Melville Cobras gave them all they could handle in the first half of their final game.
Nine lead changes - including one in the final minute of the first half - saw the Raiders trail at half-time 29-28 in a game where the Melville defence initially caused fits for the Raiders. 鈥淢elville was working really hard and they played very hard with a lot of intensity and sometimes it鈥檚 just a matter of meeting that intensity and you have to figure out how to compete at the level that the opponent is competing at,鈥� said Raider head coach Jason Payne, continuing, 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 do that in the first half and we weren鈥檛 ready for them.鈥�
The second half for the Raiders proved to be much better as they matched - and then overpowered - the Cobra players, outscoring Melville 24-6 in the third quarter to take a commanding 52-35 lead into the final frame, where they matched Melville shot for shot to win 66-50. 鈥淭he second half was much better for us,鈥� said Payne, adding that everyone pitched in to eventually pull away from the Cobras.
Payne then said that winning the tournament was definitely a positive for his club, but felt that there are still things that they need to work on should they want to continue their success later this season. 鈥淚 think we realized that we really have to focus on the defensive side of the game,鈥� mentioned Payne, continuing, 鈥淲e have to learn that defence isn鈥檛 an occasional thing. Defence has to be done all the time.鈥�
The Raiders also struggled at times with their intensity; something their coach definitely noticed. 鈥淪ometimes we aren鈥檛 prepared to play it seems and definitely in the Melville game that was our problem,鈥� offered Payne. 鈥淭hey came out with a lot of intensity and we didn鈥檛 and sometimes we have to realize that our margin is just not that big.
鈥淲e can鈥檛 do that against LeBoldus or St. Mary because that鈥檚 a different animal when we鈥檙e playing teams at that level. You don鈥檛 get a half to figure things out.鈥�
Up next
The Raiders were in Regina last night (Tuesday) to play the defending 5A Provincial champion LeBoldus Golden Suns in an exhibition game however results were unavailable at press time. The next tournament action for the Raiders will be in two weeks鈥� time when they co-host the sixth annual York City Classic with the Sacred Heart Saints.
