The YRHS senior boys鈥� basketball team travelled to Saskatoon this past weekend to compete in the fourth annual Chargers Charity Classic held at Centennial High School in Saskatoon.
In the first game the Raiders led by as many as 13 points before allowing the hometown Chargers to battle back to tie the game and send it to overtime.
Overtime saw Centennial continue to ride their wave of momentum, pulling away from the Raiders for the 59-50 Charger win. Grade 11 player Caleb Bymak had an outstanding performance in the loss, scoring 14 points and hauling down 12 rebounds for a double-double. Both Alex Popoff and Peter Kozushka scored nine points while grade 12 forward Adam Wyonzek scored seven.
鈥淲e had a big lead and were up 13 in the fourth quarter, but we鈥檙e still pretty young in the year and haven鈥檛 quite figured out how to close out those games yet,鈥� offered coach Payne. 鈥淚t was a good test and we played well but didn鈥檛 quite finish it up.鈥�
The second game pitted the Raiders against a familiar foe: The North Battleford Vikings. 鈥淭hey鈥檝e been a team that we鈥檝e played a lot over the past few years and we鈥檝e had our way with them these last few years,鈥� offered Payne, continuing, 鈥渂ut they鈥檝e really improved and I think we kind of expected them to be the North Battleford we had played in previous years.鈥�
They weren鈥檛 the same North Battleford team from previous years, however, as the Vikings handed the Raiders their second loss of the tournament, this time by a 62-53 score. Nick Payne led all Yorkton scorers with 15 points while Popoff was also in double digits, scoring 13.
The third and final game of the tournament saw the Raiders take on the Tommy Douglas Tigers.
A strong defence held the Tigers to just 17% shooting throughout the game while Tyson Black went 3-for-4 from beyond the arc to lead all Raiders with 13 points in a 46-22 Raider victory.
While a 1-2 record is not ideal, coach Payne says he鈥檚 not paying attention to the win/loss numbers; at least not yet. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not trying to focus on wins and losses right now, we鈥檙e trying to be the best team we can be come March,鈥� suggested Payne, adding that the team has really focused skill development so far this season. 鈥淲e weren鈥檛 a very good shooting team last year so we鈥檝e been focusing on that and trying to improve our shooting at maybe a bit of an expense of some of our X鈥檚 and O鈥檚, so we don鈥檛 have as much stuff in as we鈥檝e had at this point in past years and that鈥檚 okay because that鈥檚 a sacrifice that鈥檚 going to pay off for us in the long term.
鈥淥verall I was happy with the results. Any time you go to Saskatoon it exposes the things that you need to work on and we came back with a long list of things that we can really focus on for the next month of practice before we head to Melville.鈥�
