The YRHS Raiders senior boys’ basketball team took to the road once again this past weekend for their sixth tournament of the 2014/15 SHSAA basketball season.
This time the Raiders travelled to Swift Current for the 2015 Doug Armstrong Memorial Invitational Tournament, where they took on arguably the strongest high school basketball team in the province in their first game of the tournament. “We played St. Mary first so that was a pretty stiff test as they’re in the conversation for the top team in the province,” mentioned YRHS head coach Jason Payne. “Certainly out of the small cities teams they are far and away the best.”
The St. Mary Marauders proved why they are indeed one of the best in the province, draining 10 three pointers in the first quarter before adding three more throughout the game to defeat the Raiders by 19 points, 86-67, in what is one of St. Mary’s closest games of the season.
Unlike many of the Marauders’ opponents, the Raiders simply did not roll over and play dead.
Instead, the Orangemen continued to battle and, led by a 22 point, six rebound performance by Nick Payne, kept the game respectable all the way through. “We had a slow start and they hit 10 threes in the first quarter so we were down early but we clawed our way back after that,” offered coach Payne, continuing, “They’re a very good team but once we kind of settled down and they had their initial onslaught of three pointers in the first quarter we started to perform better and played fairly well in the second half.”
Grade 12 veteran Alex Popoff and Jesse McDowell also had strong performances against the Marauders. Popoff picked up a double double with 12 points and 12 rebounds while McDowell scored 14 points while hauling down six rebounds and collecting five steals.
Game Two pitted the Raiders against the Moose Jaw Central Cyclones in the ‘B’ side semi-final.
A quick start both offensively and defensively in the second game saw the Raiders open up a 16-4 lead after the first quarter; a lead that they would never give up en route to the 77-64 win.
Nick Payne once again led the Raiders with 22 points while hauling down seven rebounds, collecting six assists and picking up seven steals.
Popoff, too, had another strong game. The talented athlete scored 14 points and picked up 10 rebounds for his second straight double double, while Clyde Mariano came off the bench to cause all sorts of havoc for the Central offence, accumulating six steals while hitting two three pointers.
“The guys did a really good job and played well and they had a hard time with our press and we created some things off of their turnovers,” mentioned the YRHS Raider coach, adding that not everything went the Raiders’ way as Central did outrebound the YRHS 46-39.
But outrebounded or not, the YRHS Raiders still claimed the 13-point 77-64 win to move to the ‘B’ side final where they faced a familiar foe in the North Battleford Vikings. “This was the fourth time we’ve played North Battleford this year,” suggested Payne, adding, “Basically we had an hour and a half off between that game and the Central game so the kids dug down and gutted it out even though they were definitely tired.”
Even though fatigue was settling in the Raiders managed to take advantage of their familiarity with the Vikings, stifling the North Battleford offence and holding them to a tournament low 50 points in the game while scoring 62 of their own in the 12-point, 62-50 victory in the ‘B’ side final.
For the third game in a row Nick Payne topped all scorers with 22 points while scooping up seven rebounds and five steals while Caleb Bymak was two points and two rebounds shy of a double double with eight each.
Popoff was not shy of a double double however, as the veteran forward scored 10 points and pulled down a game high 16 rebounds for his third double double of the tournament.
The bench, too, did a respectable job in the final game of the tournament. “The bench really did well, especially against North Battleford,” mentioned coach Payne. “Against North Battleford Tyson Black hit a couple of big three pointers when he came off the bench.
We were also reintroducing Peter Kozushka this weekend because he had sprained his ankle in early January and so he came off the bench this weekend and did a good job of eating up space and causing problems for opposing teams.”
Up next
The next action for the YRHS Raiders senior boys’ basketball team will be Thursday afternoon when they take on the Morinville Wolves in the opening round of the 2015 Blue Devil Classic at Eastglen Collegiate in Edmonton.
The YRHS Raiders senior girls’ basketball team will also be taking part in the Blue Devil Classic. The Lady Raiders will take on the Morinville Lady Wolves on Thursday afternoon as well.
