Year three of the York City Classic is in the books as both Yorkton schools built some confidence at their home tournament with strong weekends in different ways. The Raiders rode big wins over Prince Albert carlton and undefeated Swift Current to third place in this tear's York City Classic while the Saints showed sings of a move in the right direction with a 2-2 record to finish in seventh place.
The weekend tipped off on Friday afternoon as the Raiders took on Lumsden at the YRHS Gym. A weaker Lumsden team than in recent years when they produced University of Saskatchewan standout Matt Forbes proved no match for the Raiders who came out flying to a lopsided victory in which the YRHS starters saw plenty of rest in the second half in anticipation for their Friday night clash against the undefeated Swift Current Colts. Bryce Tomcala was solid for the Raiders at the center position in the win for the Regional. Over at the Halo Dome the Saints beat defending provincial champs North Battleford in a sloppy affair that saw both teams turn the ball over well over twenty times apiece in the opening group stage game. A 65-61 win over the defending 4A champions would see the Saints go into their Friday night clash with Carlton with a chance to win Group D if they could pull off an upset. The Friday night games saw both Yorkton teams come out strong to start, the Raiders were in tough against a top notch Swift Current team that came into the YCC undefeated and hoping to be among the tournament favorites come semifinal Saturday, while the Raiders were looking to notch their first win of the season against top ranked 4A competition. A first quarter where both teams felt each other out saw the Raiders score in transition off inspired defense and excellent point guard play from grade twelve leader Daniel Mandziuk, but Swift Current's three point shooting prowress kept them in it early as both teams ended the first quarter tied at 19-19. Swift Current's shooting continued to be an Achilles' Heel for the Raiders as the Colts controlled the game from the perimeter for much of the second quarter and if it wasn't from great role play from Darien Kequahtooway, Tyrell Ulmer, and Alex Popoff the Raiders would have been in trouble at half, but the score remained 37-36. In the second half the Raiders defensive intensity finally took over the game as the Raiders outhustled Swift Current in the game's final twenty minutes and buoyed by one of Ben Redl's best games as a Raider ran the Colts out of the building in a 75-68 win to end their undefeated season and send the Raiders to the semi-finals on Saturday afternoon against prince albert St. Mary's.
Sacred kept things interesting in the first half of their game against Carlton and despite a great performance by Brendon Walkington, could not find the scoring needed to take advantage of their effort on the glass and in their 2-3 zone, eventually getting blown out by Carlton after being down just six points at halftime. In other group stage play Moose Jaw Central and St. Mary's made quick work of their Group B/C opponents on way to the smeifinals in what were rather less competitive round robin draws.
On Saturday the Saints opened their B Side play in the morning against Moosimin where once again turnovers plagued the SHHS boys, who once again were given a huge game from Walkington, but gave away the ball far too many times, especially in the fourth quarter where they were down just a couple of buckets for a majority of the final six minutes but could just not convert en route to a 60-56 loss to last year's 3A runner ups.
In the tournament semifinals the
Raiders could not overcome a deep, physical St. Mary's squad and fell short of advancing to the
YCC final for the second straight year. In semifinal #2 Carlton nearly upset 4A runners up and highly ranked Moose Jaw Central, leading all game before Central's Zach Schutte hit a buzzer beater three to send Central to the tournament final where they would face St. Mary's.
Sacred would finish their weekend against another 3A foe in the B Side consolation game taking on Caronport. The Saints protected the ball much better in the afternoon and dominated Caronport, who were missing one of their players due to an ankle injury. Regardless the Saints finished the weekend strong an took an 80-51 win that gave Saints head coach Garrett Karcha a spring in his step to end the YCC. "Sacred has never beaten North Battleford before and even with them rebuilding this season that was a huge win for us and two good games Saturday against 3A teams we will be seeing for the rest of the year were huge for us" said Karcha. who mentioned that the Saints trip to Lumsden this weekend will be another big weekend as they go up against top 3A school Shaunavon.
"Shaunavon right now are the favorties in 3A and how we play Thursday night will kind of show how far we have came" closed Karcha.
The Raiders closed out their weekend in the bronze medal game against Prince Albert Carlton, and despite rolling their bench for much of the second quarter, the Raiders found themselves up fifteen in the fourth quarter before Carlton mounted a comeback to send the game into overtime. In the overtime session, Redl ended up missing two free throws to allow Carlton to tie the game with a last second layup to send the game into double overtime at 74-74, threatening a tired Raiders team from letting a win slip away from them. However thew Raiders dug deep and Redl redeemed himself with some clutch outside shooting and post play in the second overtime session, earning the win and third place for the Raiders. "It was a war of attrition with two tired teams in the last game of the weekend, and after this weekend I think we are in the discussion (of top 4A teams) but we have some work to do, and that's okay." said head coach Jason Payne. Payne praised the defense of Alex Popoff and Tyrell Ulmer in their wins saying "It is hard to get kids to accept a defensive role and it is always important for a team when that happens."
The Raiders will be off to Prince albert this weekend where they will get another potential crack at the York City Classic Champions St. Mary's who blew out the YRHS and Central on Saturday on way to the 2013 title and the Regional will be looking to continue to improve as their competition gets tougher in the final month of tournament play. The road to Hoopla is getting shorter, and after another successful York City Classic the journey continues as the Saints and Raiders look to build momentum heading into provincial playoffs.
