When you’re playing a one-game showdown for a provincial medal, the deciding factor will often be which team finds the hot hand at the right time.
For the Osler VCA Lions in the SHSAA 4A boys provincial basketball championship bronze medal game against the Moose Jaw South Hill Royal Falcons on Saturday afternoon, that hot hand came early and lasted all game.
The Lions rained down no less than 16 three-pointers -- including eight from Grade 12 Jackson Bueckert -- as they went on to a 103-76 victory at Riverview.
“The shots were falling, we were getting the boards and we played great defence, especially in the second quarter and that really helped us get the lead and take control of the game,” said Bueckert, who finished the game with 30 points.
“It wasn’t the medal we wanted, we were hoping to go for gold but we’ll take what we can get and we’re really happy with how things turned out.”
South Hill got off to a rough start and trailed 14-2 early in the first quarter, but clawed their way back to 24-18 at the break. Then came the next 10 minutes, and Osler simply couldn’t miss, outscoring the Royals 34-15 and building a 25-point lead at half.
Things went far better for South Hill in the second half, and they’d even win the fourth quarter, but they were unable to get closer than 20 as things progressed.
“They shot the heck out of the ball today,” said South Hill coach Kalen Senecal. “(Bueckert) was an amazing player, he probably shot at least 6-for-10 from the three-point line and it’s tough to compete with that when they’re able to hit shots from farther and farther away… VCA is really well coached and we just didn’t quite have the shooting to keep up with them today.”
Troy Hofstra also had a solid game for Osler with 25 points. Drew Biette led South Hill with 26, while Cooper Gregor scored 17 and hit five threes of his own. Matt Artavia also had 17 points.
Of course, the over-reaching theme of the day is the fact there’s basketball happening at all, something that Senecal was naturally happy to see happen.
“We were so excited to be able to play in front of our own fans, there were a lot of people here today to watch us play and I’m so appreciative that we had this chance,” he said.
Other extremely early results from the SHSAA provincial basketball showdown saw Coronach take a 74-61 win over Foam Lake to win 1A girls bronze, Regina Campbell defeat Saskatoon Holy Cross 65-59 to win the 5A girls bronze, Regina Luther defeat Regina Harvest City 70-50 for 4A boys bronze and Saskatoon Walter Murray defeat Swift Current in the 5A girls consolation game.
