Before the game even started, the Hoopla 4A boys high school basketball championship was a huge win for Moose Jaw.
For the third time in Saskatchewan High School Athletics Association history, two teams from the Friendly City were on the court for the gold medal game, as the top-seeded Central Cyclones took on the second-seed Peacock Toilers.
When all was said and done, the Cyclones lived up to their advance billing, and with an 84-76 victory over the Toilers in a hard-fought contest at Peacock on Saturday afternoon, are once again provincial champions.
“It’s pretty awesome, and back-to-back, too, so we’ll want to keep that going in the future,” said Central coach Shaun Muchowski, referring to the Cyclones title win the last time Hoopla was played in 2019. “We had a really good start to the season and kind of rode that high for a while, then we really had to dig in down the stretch, Everybody was playing us tough with that target on our back, so we had to dig down deep and earn it and we did.”
Peacock got off to exactly the start they wanted to in the gold medal game, taking a 10-2 lead out of the first five minutes. But all that did was set the stage for Central junior Tommy Vincent, and once he found his hot hand, things changed dramatically.
Vincent hit three three-pointers on three trips down the court, giving the Cyclones a 16-14 lead at that point. They’d never again trail in the game, putting together a 40-27 edge by halftime.
“It was unbelievable, and of course it felt even better having the game I had last night,” said Vincent, who finished with 21 points after putting up nine in the semifinal against Saskatoon Marion Graham. “Being able to bounce back and light it up tonight… this is what we’ve been working for all season and it feels amazing.”
That the game swung on Vincent’s solid shooting was no surprise to Muchowski.
“We found through much of the season when Tommy got hot, we did really well,” he said. “We always have Mo, he’s always the guy, but when we can get those supporting cast guys going we’re a really tough team to beat and we proved it, so we’re really happy with how things worked out and I’m really proud of the guys.”
Mo Jabateh ended up leading all scorers with 26 points in his final game, capping off a dominant season for the Cyclones senior.
“I’m just happy we won, we put in all the work this season to get to this moment and it’s great to be able to finish it off,” Jabateh said. “I’m proud of my teammates, I’m proud of myself, this was my last high school game and it was great to be able to go out with the big win.”
The Toilers were able to make things interesting in the second half, even closing to within five points at one stage late in the fourth quarter. Seeing his troops never give up was a source of pride for coach Troy Setter.
“I’m so proud of the guys, just the kind of year we had, they kept battling right to the end there,” he said. “We missed a couple of free throws at the end to cut it to one possession, so it was that close… the guys battled hard, they battled hard all year and I’m really proud of how they finished the year off. A silver medal at provincials is nothing to shake your head at, that’s absolutely awesome.”
Kaedyn Banilevic added 14 points for Central, while Kalil Chin scored 10.
Peacock’s offence was once again well spread out, with Mac Simpson and Rafael Pondevida scoring 15 each, Nathan McDougall 14, Bryce Baumann 13 and Dominick Mall 12.
Central advanced to the final with a 92-78 win over North Battleford John Paul II on Friday, with Peacock defeating Saskatoon Marion Graham 68-53.
