The Central Cyclones are off to exactly the kind of start they were hoping for heading into the high school boys basketball season.
A tournament win in Prince Albert during the Dec. 2 weekend got things rolling, and a 109-38 victory over the Lumsden Devils in league action on Tuesday night made it four wins in a row to tip off the campaign.
It’s not too far off with how things went at the beginning of last season for the local crew, and we all know how that ended up: an unbeaten, dominant sweep through regionals and provincials on their way to the SHSAA 4A championship.
Whether or not this year’s team will follow the same path has yet to be seen, but there’s little question the start had been a good one -- especially with the victory in Prince Albert.
“It was a good tournament, for sure,” said Cyclones head coach Barry Seaborn. “We had a chance to face another good 4A team in North Battleford John Paul, so that was a nice win for the rankings, and then playing some of the big 5A guys in Cartlon and St. Mary’s was a good test, too. So it was a nice way to start the season.”
The Cyclones got things started with a 100-60 win over North Battleford John Paul II and followed with an 88-39 win over St. Mary’s in the semifinal before rolling past Carlton 88-63 in the championship game.
That led into Tuesday’s contest in Lumsden, where Max Simmons led Central with 22 points and Ben Pollack picked up 14 for the Devils.
With the season still so early, Seaborn wasn’t about to make any predictions of success when it comes to the local league this season, especially with the defending champion Peacock Toilers also off to a good start and the 5A Swift Current Colts waiting in the wings.
“We haven’t seen everyone in the league, but Peacock should be the favourites seeing that they’re the defending champions and they should have a pretty good team again this year,” Seaborn said. “Our goal right now is to get to the city final and see what happens there.”
Then there’s the ultimate goal waiting at the end of the campaign: Hoopla 2024 right here in Moose Jaw.
“I don’t think a lot of teams get an opportunity to win it at home,” Seaborn said. “That would be super exciting and that’s the ultimate goal, but we have to make it there first. We’ve only seen a couple of 4A teams so we don’t know what the landscape looks like, and lots of things can happen before then.”
Central is back in league action on Tuesday, Dec. 12 when they travel to Swift Currrent, after which they’re off the Jasper Place REB Invitational from Dec. 14-16 in Edmonton, one of the highest calibre tournaments they’ll play in this season.
“That’s going to be a real test.” Seaborn said. “It’ll be a lot more physical than we see around here, and the size is something we really don’t see a lot of in this province, so I think it’ll be really good for the kids.”
Other boys league action Tuesday saw Swift Current (2-0) take a 102-51 win over the Vanier Vikings (0-2). Duncan Gevana led the Colts with 32 points, while Nafyad Eticha scored 16 and Makstr McIntyre added 11. Jared Mana led Vanier with 12, Cruz Pambrun and Carson Gomersall had 10 each.
In girls league action, the Vanier Spirits improved to 2-0 on the campaign with a 55-38 win over Central (1-1). Kate Waldenberger and Ireland Guillaume led the Spirits with 14 points each, Addison Simpson topped Central with 15 points.
The Swift Current Ardens (2-0) kept pace with Vanier with a 100-29 win over the Assiniboia Rockets (0-2). Janelle Stolhandske-Dale and Danica Jackson topped the Ardens with 19 points apiece, Leah Sletten added 14 to go along with 10 each from Kylee Michaluk and Navy Louma. Khanesia Warken topped the Rockets with 12 points.
No score was reported in the girls game between Peacock and Lumsden.
Girls league action continues Tuesday, Dec. 19 with Peacock at Central (6:20 p.m.), Swift Current at Vanier (5:50 p.m.) and Assiniboia at Lumsden (6:40 p.m.). Boys contests will see Peacock at Central (8 p.m.) and Vanier at Lumsden (5 p.m.).
