Libby Epoch makes a pass in traffic to Alia Baigent during Peacock's 79-64 win over Warman on Saturday.

Tested, but not defeated, the Peacock Toilers were able to put together the big quarter when they needed to this weekend.

Heading into the fourth quarter against the Warman Wolverines in the final of the Moose Jaw Invitational Senior Girls Basketball Tournament, the Toilers held a slim 57-54 lead, but they would control the frame on their way to a 79-64 win and back-to-back tournament titles.

“We really had to dig deep and push our defence because our offence wasn't really going well,” said guard Libby Epoch.  “It all started on defence.”

The Toilers tightened up on defence in the quarter and that helped them push the offence into action.  They ended up going on a 19-2 in the first five minutes of the quarter to put the game away.

Epoch led the offensive surge in the fourth quarter for Peacock, scoring 13 of her game-high 35 points in the final frame to help power the Toilers to a big win.

Peacock got off to a great start in the game, jumping out to a 27-8 lead in the first quarter, but then Warman started to come back and that's what Peacock was expecting to happen.

“Every time we've played them, we've got off to a really solid start and that's crucial because this is a team that will always claw back, so our explosive start has always been crucial for us,” said Reene Verge, Peacock head coach.  “We just let them get some transition points off us in the second quarter that got them right back in the game, so we tried to make some defensive adjustments.”

After Peacock's big opening quarter, Warman came back and cut the Toilers lead to 41-38 at the halftime break.  That led stuck at three points throughout a back-and-forth quarter.  Peacock started pushing the pace late in the frame and were able to carry that into their explosive start to the fourth quarter.

Verge was happy to see her team stick with their game plan throughout the night despite their shots going a bit cold in the middle quarters.

“We've always told the girls that when you're off shooting, you have to continue to shoot and a lot of those hoops weren't falling in the first half and they did in the fourth quarter and that was a big difference in the game,” Verge said.

Peacock and Warman have become very familiar with each other already this season as this is the third tournament final that they've met in with Peacock winning all three so far.  The Wolverines have been able to test the Toilers and that's what they like to see.

“They love to shoot perimeter, we match-up physically in the paint, so it's a hard battle,” said Verge.  “What you seen here was what we've done for the last two tournaments.

“They're a very strong team and the more we play each other, the more competitive both teams play, so a great way to finish our tournament.”

Macaela Crone added 22 points for Peacock in the win, while Warman's top scorer was Faith Reid with 24 and Janaya Brown chipped in with 19 of her own.

Next league action for Peacock is coming up on Tuesday when they host the Caronport Cougars at 6:15pm.

Central Looking For Consistency

It was a very up and down weekend for the Central Cyclones as they couldn't string together any wins during the Moose Jaw Invitational this past weekend.

They opened with a tight win over Melville on Thursday; then lost a close one to Prince Albert Carlton on Friday night; fell to Regina Luther, 54-37, on Saturday morning; before finishing things off with a 49-31 win over Humboldt to finish in seventh place.

“We ended on a good note,” said Jocelyn Wigmore, Central head coach.  “Our last game we came out with more of a mental game and had a lot of good things moving on offence, but we're definitely coming out of this weekend knowing that we have stuff that we want to work on and get better at.”

One of those things is just coming mentally ready to each game and thinking that they have a chance to win each time on the court.

“We didn't come out every game playing to the best of our ability,” said Wigmore.  “Just the consistency and making sure that we come out every game no matter who we play with the same mentality.”

The Cyclones are hoping to use the weekend to learn about their game and improve going forward into the season.

“This is just a little bump in the road and we're going to get right back on track,” said Wigmore.  “We're really excited about this season, we know there's a long road ahead and lots of room to improve.”

Central is back in action on Thursday when they head over to Vanier to battle the Spirits.  Vanier ended up finishing in 12th place at the tournament over the weekend.