Given the level of competition taking part in the 59th annual Moose Jaw Invitational Basketball Tournament, they’ll undoubtedly need more of the same going forward.
Central opened the 12-team event with a 108-79 victory over the Estevan Elecs, exactly they kind of result they were hoping for against skilled opposition.
“They’re a pretty good basketball team, they finished first in Tier II in Brandon, so we actually wanted a game like this, a more competitive game, to start things off,” said Cyclones head coach Ryan Boughen.
“We’re working on improving and this was a game we needed. I thought we played really well, we did a lot of good things. We hadn’t seen a ton of continuous zone for a full game, but they played a 2-3 zone all game and then some box-and-one, so we saw some different things which forced into some learning as well.”
Just as impressive was the performance of the team’s bench, as after leading 35-13 after the first quarter and 56-39 at the break, the Cyclones opted to rest their starters much of the second half. That gave players like Ammiel Chin, Amara Kamara and Jonah Neufeld plenty of full-speed court time to develop their game.
“We’re getting minutes out of lots of guys,” Boughen said. “Jonah had a great eight minutes for us and in the end the guys who are newer to us got some time and played really well.”
Dylan Boughen led Central in scoring with 21 points, including five three pointers, in a little more than a half of work. Mohamed Jabateh added 16 points and Jake McLean 15. Chin capped the game with eight points, all in the fourth quarter.
Ammiel Chin saves a pass from going out of bounds for Central.Clark Cabiluna led Estevan with 23 points, while Kyler Dutka scored 15.
The Peacock Toilers didn’t have quite as much luck against the Helping Hoops champion Weyburn Eagles, as Weyburn used a second-quarter surge to a 17-16 first quarter nailbiter into a 46-29 halftime lead. The Toilers would rally back to within nine but would get no closer in an 83-66 loss.
Blake Anderson led the Eagles with 25 points, Zachary Olson scored 17.
Devin Baumann scored 16 points for Peacock, Bryce Baumann added 14, Jude Tysdal-Fall picked up 11.
Game action continues though Friday night, with the teams re-pooling for games on Saturday morning. The gold and bronze medal games take place at 5:45 p.m. at Peacock.
