A 1-2 record and a seventh place finish at the St. Mary Marauder high school basketball tournament in Prince Albert this past weekend isn鈥檛 deemed as that great of a result for any basketball team.
That statement holds true for the YRHS Raiders senior boys鈥� basketball team, who, despite playing their best game of the season, fell 63-62 to the Carlton Crusaders in their opening game of the tournament; a team that had handily beaten the Raiders, 64-43, in their most recent meeting at the York City Classic. 鈥淲e played Carlton really well and lost by one. We were up with 25 seconds left and their guy knocked down two free throws to go ahead and then we ran a play, it broke down but we still got a look at a three. It was a good look, a good shot, it just didn鈥檛 drop. It was certainly a really good game and the kids played great. That鈥檚 what we鈥檙e looking for,鈥� offered Raiders head coach Jason Payne, adding that both Alex Popoff (19 pts) and Jesse McDowell (14 pts, six rebounds) had strong games against the Crusaders. 鈥淭hen we followed that up with probably our worst game of the year.鈥�
The game that Payne is referring to is their second game of the tournament against Saskatoon鈥檚 Mount Royal Mustangs, who beat the Raiders 63-52. 鈥淲e just couldn鈥檛 seem to get anything going and I think we kind of underestimated them a little bit and they shot the ball really well,鈥� mentioned coach Payne. 鈥淲e just couldn鈥檛 seem to recover. We dug ourselves a deep hole, then we鈥檇 come back some, then they鈥檇 score.
鈥淲e just couldn鈥檛 seem to get it back to even.鈥�
Asked whether or not he thought the negative result in Game Two was caused by his players dwelling on what could have been in Game One, Payne said: 鈥淢aybe. Maybe we were still stuck a little bit on the game the night before.
鈥淲e just couldn鈥檛 really focus and do what we needed to do to win and that was a little bit disappointing.鈥�
What wasn鈥檛 disappointing, however, was the way the Raiders bounced back in their final game of the tournament against the Bedford Road Redhawks.
Led by a double double by Nick Payne (17 pts, 10 rebounds, five assists) and a season best 7-of-15 (47%) from three point distance as a team, the Raiders dismantled the Redhawks 78-47 to finish the tournament in a positive light with a win.
Next action
The next action for the YRHS Raiders senior boys鈥� basketball team will be this upcoming weekend when they travel to Swift Current for their sixth tournament of the season.
