Heading into the final weekend before Christmas, the Sacred Heart Saints and Yorkton Regional High School Raiders basketball seasons were going in similar directions heading into their Friday afternoon clash at Sacred Heart's "Halo Dome" in the second installment of the Gladstone Battle for the 2013/14 high school basketball season.
After the two schools played each other in the Melville Compre-hen-sive School Invitational in a game in which the Raiders won 53-31 in the tournament championship, both schools went 1-2 in respective tournaments in their second weekends of the season.
Sacred going 1-2 in Caronport and the Raiders going 1-2 in the much more difficult Centennial Chargers Charity Classic in Saskatoon in which the young Raiders lost to 5A hosts Centennial in front of their student body and defending provincial runners up for two seasons in a row in Moose Jaw Central in the B Side final while the Saints lost to Birch Hills and Indian Head, beating hosts Caronport before also losing in the B Side final.
On Friday afternoon both teams knew that a win would earn some slight momentum heading into the Christmas break, which led to a hardfought defensive battle at Sacred Heart between the two in-city rivals.
A low scoring game was set early as the two teams struggled to find baskets with the Saints size and length wide frontcourt players Carter Ruff, David Ojo and Jaedon Pellatt giving the Raiders struggles inside of the paint while the YRHS halfcourt trap challenged the raw Saints press break throughout the game.
That press allowed enough turnovers late in the first quarter to put the Raiders up 13-8 at the break on some transition buckets from guards Alex Popoff and Ryan Krochak.
After the Raiders convincing win in the previous game it appeared that the late run could be the start of another double digit Raiders win, but after Garret Betker's buzzer beating three pointer to end the quarter the Saints responded to being down just two scores after one quarter with an impressive second quarter effort to go into halftime with the score 22-18 in favour of the Raiders.
The Saints came out of halftime continuing to play strong basketball thanks to the contributions of Ojo, Ruff and Pellatt and 42 per cent shooting from three point distance, threatening the Raiders who kept the Saints at a distance on a clutch late third quarter layup and the foul from rookie point guard Nick Payne that ended the quarter with the Raiders up 37-32 as the visitors looked to continue their lengthy winning streak over their rivals that was two seasons long heading into Friday.
With the Saints losing their big man in Ojo, whose presence and shot blocks in addition to rebounding kept the Raiders from using their size and depth to wear out Sacred with eight points, 14 rebounds and six blocked shots in just over half a game was a huge factor in the Saints sticking into the game, the YRHS began to make their run early in the fourth quarter.
Keeping their lead, the Raiders were up six points with under five minutes left holding a 46-40 lead after Payne split a pair of free throws, but senior leaders in Ruff and Pellatt responded by putting the Saints on their backs with the deficit up to six.
Ruff responded immediately by showing poise on a highlight reel finger roll layup to put Sacred within four as the Saints defense refused to allow the Raiders to score for the final stretches of the fourth quarter allowing the YRHS to score just eight points in the final quarter despite the Raiders using a full rotation and the Saints being down their point guard in Betker and the injured Ojo.
That effort saw the Saints force overtime where their hot shooting continued as Ruff and Pellatt hit clutch shots in 19 point performances from both players, including a bank shot from downtown by Pellatt to push the Saints within five with just over a minute left.
The Raiders battled back to get the ball on the final possession, but the Saints found a way to get one more stop to secure what could be considered an early season upset based on the paths of the two programs in recent years.
Both schools wound up 2-1 in the round robin Sacred, missing Ojo and Pellat losing to Kinistino while beating MCS.
