They didn't have the greatest weekend last weekend, but they are looking forward to next weekend's set of matches as the high school basketball season begins to wind down.
The Yorkton Regional Raider junior girls' basketball team went 1-3 over the weekend on home court, and took it on the chin against a powerful club from the always powerful Weyburn Comprehensive High School.
The Regional Raider squad will be getting a shot at a little revenge and they won't have to wait long to do it either, says YRHS head coach Chad McDowell.
The two schools will be right back at it this weekend when the Raider squad heads south to Weyburn.McDowell said he's hoping for a better turnout from his squad on the weekend.
Weyburn took control of the YRHS tournament over the weekend, scoring no less than 68 points in their three games played.
They dominated YRHS in the weekend opener in the Land of Orange, 68-29.
McDowell told the paper at the end of the tourney that although winning the rematch may not be an item on the menu, showing more effort and keeping it tight would both be possible for them.
Also scheduled is a YRHS vs Sacred Heart match coming up this week, expected game date was last night. Results of that encounter were not available in time for press.
Yorkton Regional won their second game of the 2011 Junior Lady Raider tournament with a 38-31 win over the Estevan Elecs, a game that McDowell said would be fun to watch; both teams are around the same in terms of player development and he was right about that.
YRHS held on for a 38-31 win. He said it was a change from the normal circumstances because his team learned how to play with a lead, and more importantly, hold onto the lead.
To prepare for a rematch with Weyburn Comprehensive this weekend, YRHS will practice each day leading up to Friday.
"The biggest struggle (of the season) is always scoring," he said following the tournament wrap-up, a loss against Roblin.
"They get frustrated."
McDowell said there are only three tournaments remaining in the 2011 season and sandwiched in between is the February break, then districts get played out after that.
"We're now more then halfway through the season. There have been a lot of games that haven't always been that close," he explained.
YRHS got up early for a 9:30 game on Saturday morning on their home floor, but McDowell said he wasn't surprised that that led to their best game of the tournament.
"The girls at least get to do their own routines," he said, such as dinner with their families, sleeping in their own beds, as opposed to hotel rooms in strange towns where nobody knows where anything is.That 9:30 game against Estevan "we actually made really good decisions with the basketball"
McDowell recalled. "The win was a good learning lesson."
He said he's got some talent on his bench, which was stocked with 12 girls for the tournament. They include Mandee Brazeau, a Gr. 10 who supplies both offence and defence, and Victoria Derbowka, a Gr. 9 student who has displayed skills that can't always be taught, he said.
The remainder of this year's squad includes: Montana Friskie, Brooke Bielka, Tarin Morrissey, Brazeau, Rebecca Trost, Hayley Lepowick, Nicki Zulyniak, Derbowka, Kylie Siedler-Morgan, Andrea Landstad, Rebecca Derbowka and Alayna Hansen.
NEXT ACTIONThe junior girls' team will be practicing all week long, says McDowell, before heading to Weyburn Friday for a rematch. He said there will also be a scheduled date this week with Sacred Heart. He said that on Feb. 15, YRHS will be holding an exhibition game with the team from MC Knoll Elementary School starting at 4 p.m. The game is set to take place at MC Knoll.
