Brody had a huge game and ended up with 29 rebounds in that game and he made those big guys look silly.
— Garrett Karcha
Head coach, SHHS Saints
The Sacred Heart Saints (4A, East Central) senior boys’ basketball team followed up a competitive York City Classic with yet another strong tournament this past weekend.
The Saints - coached by Garrett Karcha - went 2-1 in their most recent tournament in Lumsden, where they first knocked off the top seeded Estevan Elecs (5A, South East) 68-60 in their opening game of the tournament; a game that coach Karcha said his team felt no pressure in. “Going into the game we had the mentality that we had nothing to lose,” offered Karcha, continuing, “They (Estevan) had just beaten the Regional and had a decent York City Classic finishing fifth, so we had nothing to lose and our guys were ready to play on Friday night and it showed with a win.”
Karcha said the key in the tournament opening victory was the fact that the Saints were willing to battle down low while Estevan – despite having the size advantage with the 6’ 8” Carter Kuchinka and 6’ 7” Wyatt Haux – was hesitant to go to the dirty areas beneath the basket. “If you’re not the more skilled team then you have to be the harder working team to win those games and we definitely worked harder than they did in that game,” said Karcha, adding that grade 12 leader Brody Kormos outworked the Elecs for nearly the entire game before fouling out with six minutes remaining in the fourth. “Brody had a huge game and ended up with 29 rebounds in that game and he made those big guys look silly.
“He outworked them so badly and that’s what you need to win.”
In addition to the 29 rebounds, Kormos also scored 14 points while fellow grade 12 Saint Jake Javier led all Saints in scoring with 20 points in the win.
The second game of the tournament saw the Saints struggle offensively against the Moosomin Marquis (3A, South East), trailing 29-19 at half before ultimately losing 67-40.
Bryan Buzinski led the Saints’ offence with 10 points, closely followed by Noah Clarke with eight and Javier with seven. Kormos had a team high 12 rebounds in the loss.
The defeat evened the Sacred Heart record at 1-1 heading into their third and final game of the tournament against the host Lumsden Devils (3A, Qu’Appelle Valley).
Sacred Heart jumped out to an early lead before coach Karcha turned the court over to the bench in order to give them some valuable playing time ahead of the 2016 SHSAA 4A Regional tournament in March. “We knew Lumsden wasn’t strong, so we used that game more as a practice,” mentioned Karcha. “I don’t want to disrespect Lumsden in any way, but we used it as a structured practice.
“We started our starters, got a big lead and rotated our guys through to try and get some guys some confidence.”
The decision to give the bench players court time nearly cost the Saints, however they still eked out a 40-36 win. Clarke was the top Saint scorer in the game with 13 points while rookie Ethan Allan had a strong game off the bench, leading the Saints in rebounds with 10 while adding six points.
The next action for the Sacred Heart Saints senior boys’ basketball team will be February 26-27 when they take part in a four-team round-robin tournament hosted by the YRHS Raiders.
