The youth movement is in full swing for head coach Garrett Karcha鈥檚 Sacred Heart Saints senior boys鈥� basketball team as Karcha carried just one grade 12, captain Tannum Wyonzek, into action this past weekend in Melville.
However youth doesn鈥檛 necessarily mean defeat; a statement that the Saints proved true twice in Melville, first using a strong offensive game to defeat the Kamsack Spartans 60-34 before handing the host Melville Cobras a four point loss in a defensive battle, 43-39.
The two Saint wins, collected in two different ways, are proof positive that coach Karcha鈥檚 play by committee approach is working.
In fact, one of the more impressive performances in Friday鈥檚 victory over Kamsack was put forth by grade 10 athlete Zach Goulden-Maddin, who knocked down a couple key free-throws and made some strong defensive plays after coming in off the bench. 鈥淶ach played really well coming off the bench,鈥� mentioned coach Karcha. 鈥淗e had a really good game against Kamsack.鈥�
The Saint Coach then suggested that, while Goulden-Maddin played well, he certainly wasn鈥檛 the only one. 鈥淏rody Kormos had 18 rebounds in that game so he played pretty tough in the middle as well,鈥� said a smiling Karcha on the performance of his big man in the post.
The final game of the tournament saw the Saints take on the only other undefeated team in the tournament, the YRHS Raiders, in an all-Yorkton battle.
Unfortunately for Sacred Heart they came out on the losing end of the fight, dropping a hard fought 66-46 decision to their Yorkton rivals in a game that Karcha feels was much closer than the final score indicated. 鈥淭he score isn鈥檛 really indicative of how the play was. I think it was a five point game at half time,鈥� suggested Karcha, continuing, 鈥淭hey were in the lead the whole game but it was pretty close.
鈥淭hey opened up a lead in the fourth quarter with about five minutes left when they hit something like three three鈥檚 in four possessions or something like that to extend that lead to 20 points, but mostly they maintained a seven or eight point lead throughout most of the game.鈥�
Leading the way in the final game was veteran student-athlete Tannum Wyonzek, who came up just one rebound shy of a double-double, scoring an impressive 21 points and hauling down nine rebounds in the game despite playing a completely new position. 鈥淚 put him down low for that game so he went to play a new position and he did very well with it,鈥� said Karcha, adding that he knew his captain Wyonzek was capable of such a performance.
Overall Karcha felt that the tournament was full of positives for his team, which he fully admits is geared towards the 2015/16 season. 鈥淲e just wanted to make sure that we are competitive in every game this year and that we improve because with most of this team returning next year, next year will be a big year for us.鈥�
Next up
The Sacred Heart Saints senior boys鈥� basketball team will practice this upcoming week before taking next week off in order to write their final exams.
The next action for the SHHS Saints senior boys鈥� basketball team will be January 30 and 31 when they co-host the fifth annual York City Classic basketball tournament with the YRHS Raiders.
