There was rust on both sides, leading to turnovers and missed shots, but the Vanier Spirits are happy with the way their season started on Tuesday night.

The Spirits topped the Central Cyclones, 43-35, on the opening night of the Moose Jaw High School Senior Basketball League season.

“We were a little rusty, but our team wanted it a bit more and had less turnovers and in the end, that’s what won us the game,” said Vanier head coach Jonathan Gionet.

Vanier led throughout the game, going up 12-10 after the first quarter and then extending that lead to 20-15 going into halftime. The Spirits had their best quarter in the third when they pushed their lead to ten points at 35-25.

Gionet said that speed will be the best attribute that the Spirits have this season and they were able to use that throughout the season opener.

“We could see that tonight, we looked faster than the other team and that’s what won us the game,” he said.

Annah McDonald had a game-high 13 points in the win for the Spirits, while Kirah Brown chipped in with nine points. Ashlyn Jesse led Central with seven points in the loss.

Cyclones head coach Jocelyn Wigmore said the end result wasn’t what they were looking for, but it was a starting point for the team.

“We’re a young team this year, we have girls that played a little bit last year and are now in leadership roles, so it’s going to come, but this isn’t our team yet,” said Wigmore. “Both teams, it was about getting the rust out, was a scrambly game, so it will be a very different game from both teams next time we see each other.”

Wigmore added that they had girls play a number of different positions and are just looking to build off the positives from the contest.

“We moved the ball okay from the half court offence,” she said.

The boys contest was a thriller on Tuesday night with the Cyclones scoring an 83-74 overtime win against the Vikings.

Cody Moore, Ryan Reidy and Jonah Branning all had 14 points to lead the Cyclones to the victory, while Kody Morales had a game-high 17 points in the loss for Vanier and Ronald Nyekowat added 14.

The Spirits and Vikings are back on the court next Tuesday when they host Peacock for a boys and girls doubleheader. Central will host Assiniboia in boys and girls action next Tuesday as well.

In other action from opening night, the Peacock Toilers went into Caronport and swept the Cougars in both the boys and girls games.

Peacock’s boys won 69-43 thanks to a big second half. Caronport led 23-21 at halftime, but the Toilers exploded in the second half for the win.

Park Andrews led Peacock with 18 points, while Caronport’s Matt Adkins posted 14 points in the loss.

The girls game saw the defending champion Toilers roll to a 76-27 win, despite missing Macaela Crone.

Abby Busch had a game-high 12 points for Peacock in the win, while Piper Ingalls, Alexis Long and Megan MacDonald all put up ten points. Talia Fawcett led Caronport with nine points in the loss.

Caronport’s boys will be back on the court next Tuesday to host the Riverview/Cornerstone Royals.