On Wednesday night, the Estevan Comprehensive School Elecs won the 80th McLeod series, snapping a winless streak that dates back to 1984.
Held since 1935, the last time the Elecs won the senior basketball contest between the Elecs and the rival Weyburn Eagles was on Feb. 16, 1983.
Here is the Estevan Mercury report about that win from the Feb. 23, 1983 issue of the Mercury under the headline ‘Elecs win annual McLeod series.’
Mercury Feb. 23, 1983—One win last Wednesday in Weyburn was all it took for the Estevan Comprehensive School (ECS) to win the annual McLeod Series for the second consecutive year.
The ECS Elecs senior girls basketball team lost to Weyburn Comprehensive School (WCS) 65-53, but the Elecs boys team defeated WCS 61-59 to give Estevan the series, three games to one.
Going into the final two games of the series last Wednesday in Weyburn the ECS teams held a two games to none lead in the series. On Feb. 9 the Elecs boys had defeated WCS 54-48 and the girls had won 49-47 in Estevan.
Tom German, coach of the Elecs girls team, said one of the biggest reasons for his team’s loss was poor shooting.
“I would say that inconsistent shooting was one of the biggest drawbacks this year.”
German estimated the girls team shot about 16 per cent for the entire game.
The girls team also ran into some foul trouble early in the game, which “didn’t help matters much,” German said.
The top scorers for the girls team were Wendy Wenaas with 16 points and Ramona Cunningham with 14.
Although the Elecs boys team won their second match with WCS and saved the series, the Elecs got off to “a real slow start,” coach Jamie Town said.
“We were down 12-2 and got into foul trouble really early,” Town said.
As a result of the foul trouble the Elecs had to play a conservative game for the remaining 10 minutes of the first half.
The Elecs came out in the second half and turned the whole tempo of the game around by forcing WCS to take their shots from the outside, said Town.
Robert Andrist led the Elecs with 19 points and Don Lee added 16.
Town said the Elecs boys team had finally “come into their own” in the last 10 games after a slow start (to the season), due mainly to inexperience.
