HS Senior Basketball Season Tips Off

Another High School Senior Basketball has arrived in the Friendly City with action tipping off on Tuesday night at two schools.  There's was boys and girls games happening at both Vanier and Central Collegiate.

Spirits Hold Off Rockets In Opening Win

The season opener between the Vanier Spirits and Assiniboia Rockets looked like a blow out for Vanier in the early portion of the game.  Assiniboia made a game of it in the second half, but Vanier was able to hold on for a 65-60 win.

“I was pleased with what happened on the court tonight,” said Spirits head coach Bob Gottselig after the season opening win on their home court.  “We had a lot of girls that hadn't played Senior basketball and they did a pretty good job out there.”

Vanier was running past Assiniboia in the early going of the game on their way to a big 20-point halftime lead.  The Rockets came out firing in the second half and applied a full court press that caught the Spirits off guard and allowed them to get back in the game.

“We weren't doing anything in the first half and so we just put that press in a little bit to see if that would get that them to move,” said Assiniboia head coach Al Wandler.  “In the first half we had no spark on offence and I thought that maybe that would provide us with a spark and it sure did, I've got to be happy with the second half.”

The Rockets hosted a preseason tournament on the weekend and struggled to get going early in games there as well, but were able to pull out some wins in that situation.  This time the lead was too big to overcome for the upcoming team.

“Lets just say that my halftime speech was nothing short, but a little loud,” stated Wandler.  “They responded, they could have caved, but they responded because they have some big goals this year.”

Wandler wouldn't stated what the team's goals are for the season, but did say they are high expectations.  “We have four very strong Grade 12s, we thought that we had an opportunity to make some noise in the Moose Jaw league for the first time in about seven years, but they didn't come off the bus well, so it's not meeting our high expectations.”

On the winning side, Vanier played well in the first half and looked to really be finding a groove early in the second half, but the Rockets' press eventually wore them down and Assiniboia cut into the lead by ten points by the end of the third quarter.

“They put that pressure on and it did what it is suppose to do, it created some panic in our girls, but we'll get better,” said Gottselig on his young team that features only three Grade 12s and six Grade 10s.

“I think we have a lot of girls that can play the game and I think we have a lot of girls that can play different positions, so we can move around and maybe create some mismatches in that way.  I think we have a pretty balanced team.”

Katie Binner and Amanda Miller led the offence for Vanier in the win, each picking up 12 points.  Assiniboia's Courtney Davies was the game's top scorer, pouring in 18 points.

Other Senior Girls action on Tuesday night had the Caronport Cougars going into Central and taking out the Cyclones 43-30 on the back of 12 points from Kenedi Charuk.

It wasn't perfect, but the Vanier Vikings got off to a nice start to the 2012 season with an 81-44 win over the Riverview/Cornerstone Falcons on Tuesday night.

“It was a game where we had to work out the first game gitters,” explained Vikings head coach David Tardif.  “The first quarter we were really slow, but we started to really pick it up after that.  We have to thank our press, that really helped us.”

Neither team could really get anything going early on in the game, but Vanier eventually started to pull away as they used a fast break to jump out on the Falcons.  “Fast breaking is the thing that we're going to have to work on because when we're playing against teams like Peacock and especially Central, they're going to have size, so the half court game isn't always going to be in our favour.”

Vanier did have the size advantage on Tuesday against a smaller and quicker Riverview/Cornerstone team, but couldn't get the advantage on the boards as the Falcons did a good job of out rebounding them.

“We beat them on the boards, but we just lack the offence and it will come, it's the first game of the year,” said Falcons head coach Cain Pinfold.  

Riverview/Cornerstone can expect some growing pains early in the season with a number of new players – and not just to senior basketball, but basketball in general.  “We've got one exchange student that's never played before and two others that have never played basketball before, so we're happy with what happened,” said Pinfold.

Both teams seemed to be searching for an identity early in the season and Tardif says they're going to try and work on every aspect of the game and see what they can figure out, “We still a fairly new team, we've got some new players, so with an identity, I'm hoping we can have a really strong press and fast break.”

Pinfold sees his team's speed being an advantage for them down the road, “That's what we're hoping for is using our speed, and our rebounding, it was phenomenal tonight.”

The Vikings' Zak Konopaki was the game's leading scorer as he put up 25 points int he win.  He was helped out by Austin Avery, who scored 13.  For the Falcons, it was Tyson Pinfold doing most of the scoring with 20 points.  Their offence runs through point guard Austin Howe and he pitched in with 13 points of his own.

There was one other Senior Boys game on Tuesday night and it wasn't even close as the Central Cyclones rolled past the Caronport Cougars by a score of 114-40.  Grade 12 forward Myles McDougall almost outscored the Cougars on his own, putting up 30 points in the season opener, while Aidan Saladana helped out with 26.  Zephaniah Moore was Caronport's top scorer, picking up 20 points in the losing effort.