Basketball is coming down to the wire and teams are in the midst of competing for championships.
The junior basketball teams have been hard at it competing in a district championship tournament, while the senior teams spent the weekend competing at regionals.
Junior Girls Districts
The junior girls district championship is down to two after five playoff match ups and for the first time in three years there will be a new champion.
St. Brieux and Foam Lake will compete in the final, marking the first time since 2015 that Middle Lake has not won the title.
St. Brieux’s trip to the final was relatively easy as they received a first round bye.
In their semi-final contest, the Crusaders were matched up with the two-time defending champion Avengers.
The Avengers made their way to the semi-finals by knocking off Annaheim 61-23.
The Avengers were in tough heading into the clash as the Crusaders held all of the momentum thanks to St. Brieux holding a 3-0 lead in the season head-to-head matchups, with the Crusaders outscoring the Avengers 191-113.
Their semi-final matchup followed a similar script to their three league contests as the Crusaders routed the Avengers 71-42 to move into the district final.
Meeting St. Brieux in the final will be Foam Lake, who needed a more difficult path to get to the final.
Foam Lake kicked off their district tournament by beating Wynyard Elementary 63-16.
While their quarterfinal contest was easy, their semi-final showdown with Humboldt Collegiate was far less easy.
HCI pushed Foam Lake hard but were unable to pull off the win as Foam Lake came away with a 50-40 win.
Junior Boys Districts
While the girls tournament started in the quarterfinal round, the boys event featured a couple extra teams, and began with teams competing in contests just to get to the semi-finals.
A quintet of round of 16 matchups saw five teams looking to book their spot in the semi-finals.
Strasbourg, Middle Lake, Wynyard Composite, Bellevue, and Annaheim each booked their spots in the quarters.
Wynyard Comp. had the easiest time moving through of the five qualifiers as they routed Watson 78-12.
The most difficult of the encounters came when Strasbourg took on St. Augustine.
The young squad from Humboldt hung around against Strasbourg, but eventually ran out of steam as Strasbourg picked up a 52-40 win.
The most intriguing battle came between the grid 777 rivals as Middle Lake took on Lake Lenore.
While that rivalry generally produces exciting close battles, this one was far from it as Middle Lake rolled to a 58-30 win.
The final two matchups saw Bellevue knock off St. Dominic 48-31, and Annaheim edge past Wynyard Elementary 56-32.
While each of the five aforementioned teams earned spots in the quarters, only one managed to move on to the semi’s as each of the other four all lost.
The lone round of 16 winner to move on to the semi-finals was Wynyard Composite, who picked up a nail biting 46-43 win over another round of 16 winner, in Middle Lake.
While those two teams were engaging in a tightly contested affair, the other three games all ended in routes.
The contest between Watrous and Strasbourg ended as the most lopsided as Watrous blew by Strasbourg 59-16.
Annaheim tried to keep things close against Foam Lake, and while they were unable to do so, they managed to keep it closers than the other two teams who lost in routes as Foam Lake knocked off Annaheim 65-40.
Rounding out the quarterfinal contests, St. Brieux blasted Bellevue 63-35.
St. Brieux continued the momentum built up from their quarterfinal, as they snuck past Foam Lake 62-53.
Joining St. Brieux in the final will be Watrous who routed Wynyard Composite 71-38.
Senior Boys Regionals
While teams were battling for district supremacy in junior basketball, the seniors were back at it in senior regional action.
1A
A pair of schools will be making their way to provincials as both Lake Lenore and Middle Lake won their regions.
Middle Lake made regionals look easy as they look to defend their provincial title.
The Avengers kicked off their regional tournament with a dominant 106-43 win over Nakoda Oyade.
Knowing a win moves the Avengers on to provincials, the boys came out focused and built up an early lead and never looked back en route to a 100-54 win over Kerrobert.
Joining Middle Lake at provincials will be Lake Lenore, who picked up a regional title of their own.
The Lancers kicked off their tournament by beating Kinistino 90-41.
With the win the Lancers moved into the regional final where they took on Asquith.
The contest, while closer than their regional semi-final, saw Lake Lenore once again roll to an easy win as they knocked off Asquith 61-33.
With the wins both Lake Lenore and Middle Lake will move on to provincials, where they will look to earn a spot in the finals against one another.
Middle Lake will take on Davidson in one semi-final, while Lake Lenore will be matched up with Rocanville.
Kinistino, who also competed in 1A Boys regionals, will not be moving on to provincials, as their loss to Lake Lenore eliminated them from contention.
Kinistino’s final contest of the tournament did not go so well either as they dropped the regional consolation final 76-46 against Coronach.
2A
A pair of locals competed in the 2A regional tournaments with just one, St. Brieux, moving on.
St. Brieux made the regional tournament look easy as they picked up an 89-41 win over Stobart and then followed that up with a regional title thanks to a 96-63 win over Beauval.
Thanks to the regional title, the Crusaders will move on to provincials where they will take on Osler VCA in the provincial semi-finals.
The other local school, Wynyard failed to qualify for provincials after losing 81-51 to Saskatoon Christian.
Despite the loss, the Golden Bears had one more regional contest as they took on Maidstone in the consolation final.
That contest did not go any better for the Bears as they suffered a 69-41 loss, officially bringing their season to a close.
3A
The 3A tournament featured just a single local team, as Birch Hills was the lone entrant.
The Marauders made easy work of their regional opposition as they knocked off Tisdale 112-56 in the regional semi-finals, and Saskatoon Legacy Christian 98-55 in the regional final.
With the win the Marauders will move on to provincials where they will take on Norquay in the provincial semi-finals.
4A
The HCI Mohawks senior boys squad was also in action over the weekend competing in the 4A regional tournament.
The Mohawk’s opening round contest came against the same school who knocked out the girls in Moose Jaw Peacock.
Much like the girls, the boys struggled mightily defensively giving up 104 points in a 104-50 loss.
The loss officially ended the Mohawks’ hopes of winning a provincial title.
However, the boys in blue and gold still needed to play against Yorkton Sacred Heart in the consolation final.
Unfortunately for the Mohawks, their defense continued to struggle as they gave up another 104 points in their 104-62 loss.
Senior Girls Regionals
1A
Four local schools competed a 1A girls regionals, with two booking their spots at provincials.
Middle Lake was one of two schools to qualify for provincials after running roughshod over their regional combatants.
The Avengers kicked off their tournament in empathic fashion as they routed Nakoda Oyade 77-36.
With the win the Avengers moved into the final where they took on Southey.
After piling up 77 points, and winning by 41, the Avengers one-upped themselves, scoring another 77 but allowing only 26 in a 77-26 win.
The win moves the Avengers on to provincials.
Joining the Avengers at provincials is St. Brieux, who captured their own regional tournament.
The Crusaders also cruised through the tournament as they gave up just 74 points in a pair of wins.
The Crusaders kicked off regionals with an 89-27 win over LCBI, and then followed that up with a 67-47 victory over Langham.
With the wins both Middle Lake and St. Brieux move on to provincials.
St. Brieux will take on Kenaston in one semi-final, while Middle Lake will take on Gladmar in the other.
Gladmar moved on to provincials after taking down a pair of local schools.
Their first victim was Lake Lenore, whom they beat 68-45.
With the loss Lake Lenore’s season came to a close as they did not play their consolation game.
In the regional final Gladmar knocked off Birch Hills 59-54 which brings Birch Hills season also to a close.
The Marauders made their way to the regional final after knocking off Hafford 78-51.
2A
A pair of schools competed for a berth at regionals, as both Kinistino and Wynyard were in action.
Unfortunately for Kinistino their regional run was short lived as they bowed out in round one, losing 67-46 to Wynyard.
With the loss Kinistino was relegated to the consolation final, where they fell 50-46 to Lashburn.
Wynyard meanwhile, followed up their win over Kinistino with an 80-63 win over Saskatoon Christian.
With the win the Golden Bears will move into the provincial semi-final where they will take on Canora.
4A
The HCI Mohawks’ senior girls team were also in action as they competed in 4A regional play.
The Mohawks came into the tournament two wins from a spot at provincials, with their regional semi-final coming against Meadow Lake.
The Mohawks put forth a solid effort, and were rewarded for it as they knocked off Meadow Lake 59-47 to move into the regional final.
In the regional final the Mohawks were matched up against Moose Jaw Peacock.
After limiting their opposition to just 47 points in the semi’s, the Mohawks struggled defensively against a tough Moose Jaw squad.
The Mohawks also struggled offensively managing just 38 points in a 76-38 loss to Moose Jaw Peacock.
With the loss the Mohawks’ hopes of moving on to provincials came to an end.
Basketball players from each of the three HCI teams will now turn their attention to other sports.
