Hosting the annual York City Classic for another year, the Yorkton Regional High School Raiders and the Sacred Heart Saints might have been disappointed about their tournaments ending up in the B consolation pool after 1-1 records during pool play on Friday.
That disappointment continued on Saturday morning as the Raiders lost to Swift Current and the Saints lost to Moose Jaw Vanier, but the B Consolation Final would offer the chance at the ultimate consolation for both schools as the Gladstone Battle would be played for the third time this season.
After the Raiders won the first game on opening weekend before the Saints answered back with an overtime thriller just before the Christmas break, the York City Classic would offer a rubber match for both teams.
Going into the weekend the Raiders players were confident of their chance to earn revenge if they came across the Saints and for the first time in recent memory it would be Sacred coming in with the pressure to win after finally ending a long two year losing streak to the Orange. For both schools the game would also offer a chance to end the weekend with a .500 record and avoid finishing with a losing record at their home tournament.
With pride and conference standings on the line, both teams started the game out with an expected feeling out process despite being familiar rivals.
The trend of low scoring and defense/rebounding leading the way continued through the majority of the first half as neither team could get a real foothold of a back and forth contest.
That would change near the end of the second quarter as the Raiders would make their run on the Saints, finally protecting the basketball and riding their defense to a slight lead at halftime which would continue into the third quarter. Alex Popoff would put the Raiders up for good with his defense, registering three straight steals as the guard trio of Popoff, Nick Payne and Ryan Krochak contributed steady defensive efforts while most importantly preventing tunrovers themselves.
Peter Kozushka would also be a difference maker as the YRHS Football left tackle's big body would prove to be a difficult task for star Saints center David Ojo as Raiders head coach Jason Payne came out with a second half gameplan that was executed well on the way to a 46-29 YRHS lead after three quarters.
A short bench and a four game weekend after the first semester break in action for finals would do the Saints no favours as the much deeper Raiders team that plays all 15 of their players seemed to wear down their opponents as the game wore on, resulting in a final score of 59-44 for the Raiders. Postgame Saints head coach had nothing but full respect for his familiar adversary in coach Payne.
"We weren't really expecting to play the Raiders and we tried to really focus on our two opponents we knew we were playing and it seemed like they really had a focused gameplan on how to beat us after we beat them and I have to give full credit to the Raiders players and coaches for playing a great game," says Karcha.
Karcha also mentioned that he told his players before the game just how important the meeting was, not only for conference purposes but also for the pride of the (mostly) friendly rivalry between the two schools.
"I told the guys before the game that we are 1-1 against the Regional and a win would put us ahead of the standings as well as trying to motivate them about playing the fellow Yorkton school at home," mentions Karcha who also adds. "It is never really hard motivating your players for these kind of games as it is always one that everyone on our team treats like a playoff game."
Raiders guard Alex Popoff echoed similar comments to the Saints head coach after his impressive defensive performance mentioning how while the whole team was disappointed about a 1-2 start to the weekend the chance to avenge their defeat against the Saints was welcomed. "After we lost to Sacred we obviously wanted to get another chance to prove we were the better team and it was kind of a wake up call so playing in this game was a bit of a consolation for us even though we wanted to finish higher at our home tournament," says Popoff.
Popoff also mentioned the team's defensive effort and gameplan from coach Payne and assistant Tony Hayden being a key factor in the win and his multiple steal night. "Coach Payne and Coach Hayden put a real focus on defense in games and in practice so we feel that if we can get stops we can compete with anybody so it was nice to hold Sacred under 50 and lead the way with our defense both as a team and individually."
Next for the Saints is a trip to Lumsden for Super Hoops, another tournament in which the Saints will be playing in a pool play format, going up against Melfort, who blew them out Friday night at the York City Classic. Karcha says their goal this weekend is to play the Comets tougher than last weekend even with a short practice week with the tournament starting Thurs-day.
"We have a short week, but with February starting we are making our mission to improve this week so we want to come out with good efforts in our pool this weekend to show that."
