The Sacred Heart High School senior boys’ basketball team took part in the Brandon Sun Spartan Invitational tournament this past weekend in Brandon, MB.
The thirteenth annual tournament hosted 32 teams who were split into two tiers. The top tier saw the bigger schools from bigger cities. The second tier saw smaller schools – 3A and 4A – which included the SHHS Saints.
The Saints played a total of five games over the weekend. They played one on Thursday, two on Friday and two on Saturday. The team ended the tournament with a record of 3-2, and finished third in their pool of four.
Saints’ head coach Garrett Karcha said his team showed improvement as the tournament progressed, and he was happy with the performance.
“We had played in Weyburn last weekend and were kind of scrambly and out of sync,” he said. “This week, we focused on defense a lot in practice. The offense was starting to come around, so we worked on a lot of things in the games.”
“With five games over the course of a weekend, you can’t just play the same guys all the time. It was nice to be able to play different people and improve as a team. So I was happy with that.”
On Thursday, the Saints faced Swan Valley, and they took the win 76-36. Noah Clarke led the team in points with 14, and Zach Maddin followed with 13. Ethan Danchilla led in rebounds with eight.
On Friday morning, Sacred Heart faced Selkirk. They fell 52-42. Grady Hawkins racked up 14 points for the Saints, and Noah Clarke had 12 rebounds.
Friday afternoon saw another loss for Sacred Heart when they played Vincent Massey. The final score was 65-53. Grady Hawkins had 14 points and Noah Clarke had 13. Nathan Cochrane led the team in rebounds with 10.
On Saturday the Saints played another two games. The first was against Stonewall and added a win to Sacred Heart’s record. The final score was 53-43. Grady Hawkins had another big game with a total of 16 points. And Noah Clarke had a total of 16 rebounds.
The final game was a close one for the Saints, but they took the victory over Sanford with a final score of 70-67. Noah Clarke led the team in points with 27, with Grady Hawkins close behind with 24. Austin Walkington led in rebounds with 8, and Nathan Cochrane followed with 7.
Understandingly, Karcha mentioned Grady Hawkins and Noah Clarke as top players for the Saints over the weekend. He also acknowledged Nathan Cochrane and Austin Walkington for their strong rebounding.
When comparing this year’s team to last year’s, Karcha said it’s looking promising.
“We graduated six players last year. So basically, I only have four or five new kids on the team,” he said. “I think we have a good team. As long as we improve over the course of the year, I think we’ll do well.”
The first week back after Christmas the Saints will play in Moose Jaw. Karcha said Moose Jaw Central will be in their division, and that will be a big game for the team.
