The Estevan Comprehensive School (ECS) Elecs senior girls and boys basketball teams overcame both home crowd jitters and skilled and physical play by the Weyburn Comprehensive School Eagles on Feb. 3 to win the first stop of the 81st annual home-and-home McLeod Series.
Taking the court first in front of a packed crowd of each team’s supporters as well as the ECS cheer team who were led on by rousing anthems from the ECS pep band, the Elecs boys fought off a strong first-half push from Weyburn and eight-point deficit early in the third quarter to win the first game of the tournament 76-66.
The Elecs girls came out next only to fall behind 15-6 quickly to the Eagles in the first quarter due to a series of bad turnovers, a difficulty earning rebounds and the strong play of Weyburn guard Brynna Spence, who scored six of her 13 points in the opening frame. Elecs captain Tess Lindquist led the charge in the second quarter scoring Estevan’s first eight points of the period by showing a determined drive to the basket coupled with the ability to hit the opportune three, but the Eagles still led 30-26 at the half.
“We were nervous with our home crowd and stuff,” said Elec Kourtney Kobitz, adding they were regularly passing to people who weren’t open. “In the second half we calmed down and relaxed more.”
Tatiana Dutka, a Grade 10 guard for the Elecs, settled things down early in the second half controlling the pace of the game and draining baskets at will. Thanks to a hard-earned seven points by Dutka and Lindquist free throw, Estevan climbed back into the game early in the third quarter before Elec Teanna Michel tied it up 36-36 a little under five minutes into the frame.
A two from in the paint by Kobitz then put Estevan up for good. Despite the strong play of Eagles forward Jada Kot, who scored 13 of her total 17 points in the second half, the Elecs then dominated in the eventual 70-52 win.
“We just worked together better as a team,” said Dutka, noting the boys' and girls' wins will help with their confidence when they play the second half of the series in Weyburn Feb. 10. “Our shots started to fall and we started to be patient on our offence.”
“We stopped rebounding,” said Eagles coach Karly Johnson, adding they’ll focus on spreading out their scoring and keeping up a full game intensity in the next match. “We controlled the board in the first half and got every offensive and defensive board and then just quit.”
The Elecs and Eagles boys’ teams continually ran the floor end-to-end in the first quarter of their game, with the Eagles coming out on top 15-14 after 10 minutes. Estevan surged ahead on a two and long three by Donny Mortenson early in the second period only to see Weyburn come back thanks in part to Bryden Rumpel draining seven of his 22 points in the game to give the Eagles a 32-31 lead heading into the half.
“We knew Weyburn was going to come out and not just let us have it, so we just worked on it (and) kept the guys motivated,” said Elecs boys coach Shane Ross. “It’s a matter of snapping your fingers in front of them and giving them little challenges. We had that with some matchups and just kept pushing the ball.”
Ross said their focus going in was to key on Eagles guard Spencer Anderson, who runs their offence and sees up to 40 minutes on the court in a game. He said they rotated defenders on him to try and tire him out from the start of the game and that seemed to work, but it wasn’t the only reason for their second half roll.
“We have this guy, Heaven (Cabiluna), first year on the team and he doesn’t speak good English, but the translation is there through basketball,” he said. “He just loves to win. He’s always in the gym, a perfect attitude. He’s the kind of guy where he’s going hard all the time.”
Cabiluna took over the game in the third quarter scoring 13 of Estevan’s 26 points in the frame, compared to a combined Weyburn total of 17, to give the home side a 58-49 lead. Both teams exchanged baskets in the fourth, with the Elecs’ Wyatt Haux leading the way on two clutch threes in the middle of the period to go along with a couple of deuces near the end.
“It’s all about fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals,” said Eagles boys coach Jacquie Williams on what they’ll be practicing before their return home date. “A running game takes more physical fitness, it takes heads up and we just didn’t (have) the heads up. They gave us a little pressure in the front court, but we couldn’t see the fact we had two guys at our end and that’s just poor fundamentals. So we’ll go back to the drawing board.”
Jessie Smoliak, coach of the Elecs girls team, said her squad will be working on defensive drills throughout the week leading up to the second half of the series, with an emphasis on boxing out and rebounding. As for the boisterous home crowd that ushered in the 81st edition of the McLeod Series in the ECS gym, she said they were amazing.
“Thank you to the community (and) thanks to everyone who was involved,” said Smoliak. “It’s so awesome to see we have such an awesome community who really take the McLeod Series so seriously.”
