The 2011 Regionals of Saskatchewan High Schools Athletics Association basketball got off to a good start for the Yorkton Regional Raiders senior boys team last weekend.
They beat Prince Albert Carlton in their opening game, 48-47.
Ben Redl, Daniel Mandziuk and Stephen Hutton each scored 10 points for the visitors. Brett Wells led all scoring for Prince Albert with 12 points. Matthew Kelley had nine points in the loss.
Their next match got a little harder as Saskatoon Hardy beat them by 11, 77-66. Redl had 20 points in the loss while teammates Mandziuk and Tyler Boychuk combined for 29. Bogdan Anca had a whopping 27 points for Hardy.
Shaun Johnson had 17 and Tyler Harder chipped in with 16.
Hardy was then knocked off by Lumsden, who went to the semi finals against Prince Albert St. Mary.
Yorkton's Sacred Heart was also in tough in their games, especially in their first game when they were matched up against Moose Jaw's Peacock High.
Sacred Heart jumped out to an early 11-2 lead, but Peacock rebounded by sinking a triple 3 (three three-point shots by #6 Kale Lewchuk).
From there, the game remained close with the lead changing many times. The score at the half was dead even, 44-44.
They came out of the locker room jumping out to a six-point lead, but the Saints came back and the score went back and forth.
The Saints' (#14) Justin Genaille hit a three pointer with only five seconds left which tied the game at 59 and sent it into overtime. The game was a crowd pleaser but Peacock came away with a 69-63 win.
Garrett Karcha, head coach of the SHHS Saints, said allthough he is proud of the team the way they came back in the Moose Jaw game, couldn't help but point out that their overall shooting was absolutely nothing to be proud of."Overall it was exciting," he told the paper, to be behind that much and then work their way back into it, pointing out that Genaille started to play the best he's played lately and sent the game into extra time.
But that was were it ended, says Karcha.
"Our shooting was abysmal." Overall SHHS made only 38 per cent of their free throws. "They definitely didn't play very well," he added.
"Weird...," he said with a pause. "We just couldn't make any of our shots."
Derek McDougall was the top scorer for Peacock netting 18 points, while Saints guard Mark Kuemper was all he could be too, matching McDougall point for point with 18. SHHS's Dalen Brueckner totalled 10 points and made both of his free throw attempts.
The loss sent the Saints into a consolation match where they beat up on Melfort in four quarters easy, 62-33, despite holding a half-time lead of only 18-16, SHHS dominated.
Preston Liebrecht led both teams with 16 points, while Melfort got eight points each from Justin Neher and Derek Busby.
