After two years of hosting one of the four 4A Basketball Regional Playoff pools as one of the top four seeds in the 4A Boys Basketball Provincial Playoffs the Yorkton Regional High School Raiders will be embracing the underdog role this weekend when they travel to Prince Albert with the daunting task of having to run the table in enemy territory to make the provincial semifinals for a third straight year.
The young Raiders will need to find an upset win over Prince Albert Carlton before likely needing to topple defending provincial champs Prince Albert St. Mary's in the Regional Final to advance through to Hoopla, Saskatchewan basketball's Final Four.
After a strong win over Balgonie before a blowout loss at the hands of the Weyburn Eagles during their conference tournament (Sacred Heart missed out on the Regional playoffs with a loss to eventual conference champs Weyburn) head coach Jason Payne feels that his young team has a feel for the playoffs.
"It was nice to get the job done against Balgonie to keep our playoff lives going in a must win game and playing a Weyburn team that is loaded with Grade 12 players and seeing the sense of urgency they had because they were potentially playing one of their last basketball games of their lives gave our rookie players a chance to see what playoff basketball is like and adjust their compete levels accordingly," says Payne.
Payne mentioned that the game against Balgonie was a game that galvanized his young Raiders team, coming back from a double digit lead before winning on a last second dagger by guard Ryan Krochak to keep their season moving forward. "We haven't had the type of performance where we got beat down early and said enough is enough so I was very proud of our players because they showed real pride and fight which is what we need if we are going to advance to the next round."
Getting to the next round will be difficult for the Raiders, Prince Albert Carlton are one of the top schools in the province and have beat the YRHS on multiple occasions this year. Still Payne feels that after a close loss at the York City Classic the Raiders are definitely in play for an upset. Looking back at past underdog successes in the first round of Regionals before the Raiders recent Hoopla runs as signs of the potential to do the same this year.
"We have had past success as the underdog in the first round at Regionals and while the long drive to Prince Albert to play both Carlton and St. Mary's to get to Hoopla may not have been my first choice we definitely have a chance if we play our best basketball," mentions Payne.
With an uphill battle and a young team the Raiders are looking at a monumental task, but stranger things have happened in the provincial basketball playoffs and the Raiders will be hoping that they can be this year's Cinderella story and the villains of Prince Albert with some March magic.
