It’s as the old saying goes: when you’re in the midst of a playoff run, all that matters is finding a way to win.
The final score isn’t important, as long as you move on -- so while the Central Cyclones and Peacock Toilers would have liked to have seen smoother performances in their respective 4A boys high school basketball finals on Saturday afternoon, the fact they picked up the victories is all that was of real concern.
For the Cyclones, that meant taking an 84-75 win over Saskatoon Bedford Road in a game they led by 20 points in the fourth quarter. For the Toilers, it was responding to a run that tied the game up late and eventually securing a 78-69 victory,
As a result, both teams now advance to the Saskatchewan High Schools Athletic Association provincial championships, which will very likely be held in Moose Jaw during the Mar. 25 weekend.
While Central led from start to finish against Saskatoon, they never could quite completely pull away. That’s despite leading 51-33 at the half and 69-52 heading into the final 10 minutes,
“They hung around all game and we kind of stopped doing what we needed to do in the last few minutes, we were up 20 and change and only ended up winning by nine, so it was a little tough at the end there,” said Cyclones coach Shaun Muchowski. “But they played hard, they didn’t miss many shots and credit to them, too.”
Thing is, even with Bedford Road’s late run, Central was never really in danger, a product of their work building a lead and taking control of the game whenever they needed to.
“We had to make sure we stayed steady, played good defence and move the ball and for the most part we did a good job of that,” Muchowski said. “This time of year we just need the Ws, there’s no pictures of them, so we’ll just keep putting Ws up.”
Mo Jabateh led Central with 29 points, while Ammiel Chin added 22 and Tommy Vincent scored 19, 12 of those coming on three-pointers.
Hurshan Nutt was Bedford Road’s top scorer with 23.
Earlier in the day a few blocks east at Peacock, the Toilers found themselves in a battle with the Wildcats from start to finish -- even though it looked as if they were going to make a laugher of it in the second half.
After taking a 38-36 lead into the second half, Peacock threw down a quick 8-2 run and eventually led by as much as 12. But not only did Johnson not go away, they rallied hard: a 12-2 run of their own suddenly found things tied up 66-66 with 4:16 to play.
As it turns out, that was simply a sign for the Toilers to crank it up again, and a 7-0 run over the next four minutes would salt things away.
“It was a good game, Regina played hard right to the end,” said Toilers coach Troy Setter. “There were a couple of runs for each team in the second half and that made it interesting, but it was a good result for us.”
Seeing his troops able to respond to anything Johnson threw at them was especially positive, with the run to start the second half just one example.
“We needed that run at the start of the second half just for our own confidence,” Setter said. “It’s always good to be ahead as opposed to chasing down the lead, and that was a big difference for us.”
Mac Simpson and Bryce Baumann each scored 18 each for Peacock, Kai Houghton added 14.
Kaleb Buckle led Regina with 13.
Both teams now advance to the 4A boys provincials, with an interesting caveat -- with no centralized Hoopla being held this year, provincials are being played all over the province. Central and Peacock are the top two seeds in the division, one and two respectively, and as a result there’s a very good chance Moose Jaw will host the 4A boys championship.
“That would be nice,” Muchowski said, echoing Setter’s sentiments. “It’s always wonderful to sleep in your own bed and play on your own court when you’re playing for a provincial title.”
Things didn’t go as well for the Vanier Vikings in their regional in North Battleford, as they dropped a 90-58 decision to John Paul II in the final after beating Humboldt 64-34 in their opener.
With the provincial locations and draws yet to be determined, be sure to visit www.shsaa.ca for the latest updates.
