It was as good a day as there could be for the four Moose Jaw hosts in the Saskatchewan High Schools Athletic Association basketball regionals on Friday evening.
Both the Central Cyclones boys and girls took comfortable wins in their 4A regional openers, while the Peacock Toilers did the same in their 4A boys playdown. Things were far closer for the Cornerstone Christian School Falcons, but they too will be playing in their 2A girls regional final.
Central 72, Marion Graham 38
The city champion Cyclones picked up right where they left off after winning the girls title earlier in the week, rolling to a 72-38 win over Saskatoon Marion Graham at Central.
The fourth-seeded Cyclones didn’t take long to take control of their contest with the 13-seeds, either, using a combination of long-range shooting and inside presence to roar out to a 23-5 lead.
Marion Graham closed a bit of ground in the second quarter, but the Cyclones still led by 19 at the break and would go on to their comfortable win.
Lilly Matthies led Central with 21 points, while Lind-Z Detubio put up 14 and Ava Nichols added 10. Haylee Gardiner had a solid game for Saskatoon with 21 points.
Central now faces fifth-seed North Battleford John Paul II in their regional final at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday after the Crusaders took a 92-48 win over Martensville.
Central 130, Regina Scott 60
The Cyclones boys entered regionals as the top 4A boys seed in the province, and they looked every part the role as they advanced to their regional final.
As the score would indicate, Central got off to a torrid start against their under-strength opponents, taking a 31-15 lead out of the first quarter and never looking back. Their offence was as balanced as could be, with Earl Lamsen leading the way with 20 points, while Kalil Chin scored 18, Mo Jabateh 14, Jake Wilson 13, Kaedyn Banilevic 12 and Denzl Granil added 10.
Josh Panipekeesick led Scott -- and all scorers -- with a 24-point showing.
The Cyclones now face the winner of Martensville and Saskatoon Bedford Road at 3:15 p.m. at Central for the right to advance to provincials.
Peacock 87, Melville 44
Like their cross-town 4A boys rivals, the second-seed Toilers didn’t leave anything to chance, roaring out to a 26-8 lead in the first 10 minutes. A 42-23 edge heading into the half meant things were all but academic, and Peacock rolled to their comfortable win.
Mac Simpson led Peacock with a 15-point showing, Dominick Mall and Luke Andrews racked up 10 each.
Justin Schultz scored 18 points for Melville.
The Toilers will now face either Regina Johnson or Saskatoon E.D. Feehan at 1 p.m. at Peacock in their regional final.
Cornerstone 54, Eatonia 45
The closest game of the night ended up as an utter barnburner, and fittingly went into the final quarter all tied up 37-37.
The lead swung back and forth leading up to that point, with the Falcons taking a 16-13 edge out of the first quarter and Eatonia leading 28-25 at the half.
That set the stage for the final 10 minutes, and Cornerstone got to work after the short break, rolling out a 6-0 run to put pressure on the Spartans. A little over a minute later, the run was up to 11-3, and the Falcons had complete control of the proceedings.
Kenzie Behrns led Cornerstone with 17 points to go along with 12 each from Kiara Smith and Jorja Seida-Ruthven.
Eatonia’s Madison Summer led all scorers with 20 points, Abrie Hayes and Haley Tumbach picked up 10 apiece.
Cornerstone faces the winner of Davidson and Macklin for the right to advance to provincials at 1 p.m. Saturday at Cornerstone.
