The Sacred Heart High School Saints senior boys’ basketball team captured the bronze medal in the B Pool at the 7th annual York City Classic tournament last weekend in Yorkton.
SHHS and Yorkton Regional High School hosted the tournament which included twelve teams from around Saskatchewan.
Friday
On Friday, the Saints played two games. The first was against the Weyburn Eagles, which the Saints ended up losing 79-69.
The second game was against Fort Qu’Appelle. The Saints took the win with a final score of 65-29.
After Friday’s games, Sacred Heart’s head coach Garrett Karcha said his team performed very well.
“We’ve seen Weyburn in the past. They have a very good team,” said Karcha. “We came tired at the end and they pressed us.”
Karcha said that his team hasn’t had the opportunity to practice for the past ten days because of exams. When they get back into a regular practice schedule, Karcha said there are a few things they’ll clean up for the rest of the season.
In the game against Fort Qu’Appelle, who were playing short handed, Karcha said he was happy to get everyone on the floor.
“I was happy with the way things went today,” he said.
“Shooting is something that we have to do well,” Karcha said. “We struggled in the first half, but in the second half we did a lot better.”
Saturday
On Saturday morning, the Saints started off the day with a game against Melfort. It was a close game, but in the end Melfort was able to come out on top with a final score of 79-67.
This loss put the Saints into the bronze medal game for the B-pool, which was held on Saturday evening.
The game would see the Saints take on Swift Current, and it was an exciting game.
The two teams battled fairly closely all game. Sacred Heart was up in the last few seconds of regulation play, but a successful half court shot from Swift Current would send the game into overtime.
But, the Saints powered through and secured the win with a final score of 81-75.
Overall, they finished in seventh place with a 2-2 record for the weekend.
After Saturday’s two games, Karcha said the weekend had showcased the best basketball his team has played yet this season.
“Saturday was okay,” he said. “We played Melfort first in the morning, which we knew was going to be a close game. We played well enough to win, but we just kind of ran out of steam at the end, which has been the case lately.”
As one of the organizers of the tournament, which was run by Sacred Heart and Yorkton Regional High School, Karcha said he thought it was a successful tournament.
He wanted to give a thank you, on behalf of the organizers, to the officials, minor officials and parents for supporting the weekend, as well as to alumni players who came in as scorekeepers.
Karcha also mentioned the sponsors of the weekend who deserved recognition. Joe Beeverz, Parkland College and Booster Juice were all sponsors of the 7th annual York City Classic.
