In one of the more action-packed affairs hosted by the Yorkton Regional High School, the gymnasium had more then a few kids out watching their senior boys basketball team.
The YRHS seniors hosted invitational/exhibition series matchups over the weekend and the biggest draw of the weekend event occurred right around 2 p.m., when the Sacred Heart Saints walked down the street for a quick visit Friday afternoon. According to YRHS coach Jason Payne, there was a lot of reason for optimism heading into the one game that doesn't happen very often around here.
"It is a pretty big game for both teams as playoffs seeding will be determined by the outcome."
The last time these two clubs met within the City was a cold Saturday night just prior to the Christmas holidays.
This game was in broad daylight, still pretty cold outside but fan support inside kind of had everyone forgetting all about the cold weather.
The original meeting needed overtime. This one did not.
"We played good games all year long," said Payne. "They're a good team."
The final matchups on homecourt for the YRHS Raiders senior boys basketball team got of to a fine start Friday when they took on their cross-town rivals, Sacred Heart in the opener of the Saskatchewan High Schools Athletic Association invitationals, hosted by the YRHS.
Sacred Heart opened up a big lead but couldn't hold on as YRHS chipped away at that lead and eventually evened it at 28-28 as the half winded down.
Once tied, YRHS never looked back and the wheels fell off the Sacred Heart bench. The home team went onto a convincing 64-46 win in front of a good portion of the student body.
Payne added that it was the team's ability to keep the basketball from going into their own net that allowed them to roll on to victory Friday.
"We played really good defence, team defence."
"Their defence was very good," acknowledged Saints bench boss Garrett Karcha, who pointed out that his team's offence couldn't match the Raider defence at all.
"Our shooting was very poor."
The Saints were playing without guard Preston Liebrecht, said Karcha.
Karcha said the games come at a pretty good time as both of the Yorkton high schools are getting ready for what will no doubt be the biggest basketball games coming up this weekend, especially for the Gr. 12s on both sides.
"They're in the mix for hoopla just like we are," observed Payne.
Payne said he was hoping for similar intensity during the rest of the exhibition tournament when they played Balcarres and Weyburn.
Karcha acknowledged that his team jumped out to a pretty good lead, but something happened in the second quarter.
"We didn't have our legs behind us," he said. "We weren't very sharp."
"It's very hard to get back when they get on top," suggested Sacred Heart's tallest point guard, Gr. 12 student Mark Kuemper, who added that it was awesome to see a crowd out like that.
"It was good for the emphasis of the crowd." It was something he added doesn't come along a whole lot at the high school level. If there was an admission charge, the host team would make a small killing.
"Oh yeah, it's fun," comments Kuemper on the larger-then-usual size of the crowd.
Kuemper said it's not necessarily a negative when the other team's crowd is so loud that players can barely hear each other on the floor.
"It's actually a benefit if you look at it in the right way."
In the remainder of the weekend games, Balcarres beat Weyburn 77-56 in the second game, SHHS rebounded against Melville, 69-42, YRHS edged Melville 85-79 to close out Friday's games.
On Saturday, Sacred Heart opened up with a 88-65 victory over Weyburn, YRHS beat Melville 66-49, Sacred Heart beat Balcarres 83-56 in their final action of the tournament.
