With the amount of success they’ve had over the last half-decade, it’s safe to call the Central Cyclones senior boys basketball team a dynasty at this point.
The Cyclones picked up their fourth-straight SHSAA 4A boys basketball championship on Saturday afternoon at Sask Polytechnic, battling to an 85-69 win over the Peacock Toilers in the one-game showdown for gold.
And even though the final score wasn’t overly close, it was a battle indeed.
After taking a 48-41 lead out of the opening half, the Cyclones suddenly saw Peacock go on a huge run, with the Toilers eventually taking a 53-51 lead at the six-minute mark of the third quarter.
So how did Central respond?
A quick time-out, a 21-8 run over the next 10 minutes for a comfortable late lead, and another provincial gold medal.
“When we called the timeout, the first thing I did was just calm them down because there were lots of swear words on the bench,” Cyclones head coach Barry Seaborn said with a laugh. ”We just had to get back to playing tough defence and that’s what changed things around… they really rose to the challenge and it all paid off.”
Central was led in scoring by Grade 12 Mason Muchowski, who put up 27 points and joined his fellow seniors in winning their third-straight provincial title.
“It was amazing,” Muchowski said of the contest. “We worked so hard all year for this moment and this game was so hard, it was down to the wire for most of it and I’m just so happy to win it. There were so many ups and downs this week, we thought we wouldn’t even be playing this weekend. So to actually play and then win it, it means the most… I’m just so proud of everyone and the whole team.”
The Cyclones came into the game missing one of the top scorers in Grade 11 Gerritt Gulutzan, while Eli Juan played the entire game on a sprained ankle. Seeing his team work through that adversity was a source of pride for Seaborn.
“Everyone stepped up and played really well, it’s what we worked for all season and I’m really proud of the kids,” he said.
Max Simmons had 24 points for Central, while Chase Seaborn added 20.
Peacock head coach Troy Setter pointed to a bit of difficulty making shots at key moments as one of the factors in the loss on their end, but was still more than happy with his crew for getting to the gold medal game.
“All in all, I’m so proud of the boys and how they battled all year and just to be able to get out here and have this final game is really awesome,” he said. “Like i told the guys, it might take a couple days, but they should be proud of themselves. Silver medalists in the province is a great accomplishment and it shows how much work they put in to get to this game.”
Kai Houghton topped Peacock with 20 points, while Makungu Mutabazi scored 19 and Luke Andrews 14.
