They had their sights set on gold, but in the end the Yorkton Regional High School Raiders senior boys basketball team wrapped up their season with their heads held high after capturing bronze this past weekend at 4A Hoopla in Saskatoon.
"We went in hoping to win it all, but we knew it wouldn't be easy against St. Mary's," said Raiders head coach Jason Payne. "It was nice to win our final game against Regina O'Neill. It's always nice to end the year on a win. Our team has a lot to be proud of this year. Making it to Hoopla is a big accomplishment."
The Raiders' 62-59 win over Regina O'Neill in the bronze medal game was an up-and-down affair. Knotted up at 27 after two quarters, O'Neill took a commanding 10-point lead heading into the final frame. But with their backs against the wall in the last minute of play, David Kaunhofen scored a three-pointer with eight seconds left to secure bronze.
Although a win is a win, Payne wasn't happy with how his squad started the game.
"We didn't get off to a good start," he said. "It took us a while to wake up and realize we still had something to play for. But once we didn't have much more time to make mistakes, we turned it around and came away with the win."
Before taking on Regina the Raiders faced St. Mary's on Friday.
Yorkton Regional couldn't buck the trend of the Prince Albert-based team being their Achilles heel, losing 74-53.
"We just haven't been able to beat them all year," said Payne. "We only lost seven times this year and five of the losses were to St. Mary's. It is frustrating. But you have to give them credit. They are a great team."
A poor start ultimately sealed the Raiders' fate against Prince Albert. They didn't get on the board until St. Mary's already racked up 13 points.
"We just couldn't execute at the start," said Payne. "Against a team like St. Mary's, you can't afford to have a start that bad. We had to play catch up the rest of the game and weren't able to come back from it."
St. Mary's went on to beat Moose Jaw Central in the gold medal game 73-68.
Throughout the tournament, Daniel Mandziuk shinned for the Raiders. The point guard scored 16 points against St. Mary's and 19 versus O'Neill.
"He has been huge for us all year," said Payne. "He's just a great player. We owe a lot of our success to him, Ben Redl, and the rest of our grade 12ers."
Looking ahead at next year, Payne is optimistic, but knows it will be somewhat of a rebuilding season.
"We are losing a lot of our core players," he said. "It will be a work in progress, but we have a strong group of players coming up from our junior team. We should be okay."
