With a talented group of returning grade ten players and incoming grade nines the YRHS Jr. Raiders basketball team opened its season by hosting a home tournament filled with some of the best HS programs in the province. Teams from all over the province and Brandon's Crocus Plains came to the YRHS in early season action and the Raiders started their young season off strong despite going through a learning curve with their offensive and defensive schemes.
The Raiders opened up their 2012/13 season with a Friday night clash with Regina's Johnson Wildcats. The Raiders had struggles with turnovers and Johnson hit some timely three pointers throughout the game, but the Raiders size advantage and hustle on the defensive and offensive glass kept them close all game before clutch free throws at the end of the game tied things up and sent it into overtime. In overtime, the Raiders continued to dominate on defense and in the rebounding department despite having two players fouled out including guard Ryan Krochak, one of the team's best defenders. In the end timely shooting from Nick Payne and offensive rebounding from Caleb Bymak and Peter Kozushka led the Raiders to a 56-53 overtime win and a spot in the tournament semifinals against Brandon's Crocus Plains high school.
In the semifinal the Raiders once again used their size advantage and hard nosed play to an easy win. Krochak had another excellent defensive game racking up four steals in one quarter while Payne wrapped things up with a seven point run on his own in the fourth quarter as the Raiders won 61-37 and took on Regina Thom who beat Moose Jaw Peacock in the other semifinal matchup.
In the final the Raiders finally met up with a team that matched them physically as a Thom team with a big frontcourt and deep bench gave the Raiders problems as they lost the advantage in the rebounding department they had in the first two games. Still, the Raiders battled for much of the first half before hot shooting from Thom put the lead to a twenty plus point margin that was just too much for the Raiders to overcome, making them settle for second place in what was a promising opening weekend for the Raiders despite the letdown of losing in the final.
"We played really hard and let them get ahead with them shooting a high percentage and we just couldn't make up that cushion we gave them" said Raiders head coach Curtis Spelay. "Peter Kozushka and Caleb Bymak did a great job for us all weekend crashing the glass and getting rebounds for us all weekend and being aggressive to give us an advantage," said Spelay. As for a lack of pressing during the final to catch up Spelay explained that their gameplan is more orientated to running in transition on offense so they would prefer not to press in favor of running the floor on offense.
Spelay also mentioned that the Raiders being undersized at guard with Krochak and Payne who are both shorter guard players gave Thom a bit of an advantage on offense in exchange for their offensive rewards on the other end as Krochak and Payne are the team's primary ball handlers. The Jr. Raiders are off for the Christmas break with practices going on to stay sharp before taking part in the YRHS Sr. Round Robin Tournament the first week back in January with SHHS, Melville and the Sr. Raiders in what will be a test for the Jr. Raiders against much bigger opponents at the high level to start the new year off.
