A player visit to the University of Saskatchewan a few months ago has led to a special USports Canada West men’s basketball showdown in Moose Jaw this Friday night.
The U of S Huskies will host the Lethbridge Pronghorns in the first-ever Ron and Jane Graham Shootout, with tip-off at 6 p.m. at Peacock Collegiate.
“It’ll be a pretty cool game, pretty high-level basketball,” said longtime local high school coach and event organizer Ryan Boughen. “Both those teams are pretty successful and the Huskies are potentially one of the better teams in the country, so it’ll be a fun game to watch.”
The genesis of the contest -- which is a Canada West regular-season showdown -- came out of Huskies first-year Dylan Boughen’s first in-person meeting with U of S head coach Barry Rawlyk prior to the start of the current university season.
While chatting with Dylan and dad Ryan, Rawlyk mentioned a potential neutral-site game in Moose Jaw. Ryan -- the Prairie South School Division director of education -- felt it was a definite possibility and plans were put into motion.
“Barry talked to me about how he wanted the Huskies to have a little more exposure in the province, and that meant playing in different parts of the province,” Boughen explained. “Then Ron and Jane Graham are from Moose Jaw and are really big Huskies supporters, Dylan is a Moose Jaw kid so it all just seemed like a really good fit.”
The Grahams are long-time supporters of Huskies basketball, with the team's training ground in Merlis Belsher Place named after the duo after a generous donation helped create the state-of-the-art facility. They also recently made a $5.9 million donation to the university to assist vaccine research and Huskies athletics as well as engineering and education students.
The contest is being hosted by the Moose Jaw Spartans youth basketball team, and will feature a halftime show with Cheer Infinity Athletics and a Spartans exhibition contest.
As for the game itself, local basketball fans could be in for a treat.
“If people haven’t seen university basketball before, they will be quite shocked,” Boughen said. “We have good high school basketball in this city, but this is men playing basketball, it’s a whole ‘nother beast. And the Huskies have a couple players who play in the CEBL (Canadian Elite Basketball League) who were drafted, so it’ll be a chance to see some players who are really high calibre. It’s a really cool opportunity.”
The Huskies (2-2) are led by junior guards Marquavian Stephens (18.5 points per game) and Alexander Dewar (17 ppg), while Lethbridge (1-3) counts junior wing Moreau Darlington (14.5 ppg) and senior forward Chad Oviatt (12.0 ppg) among their leaders. Boughen has redshirted his freshman season and won’t see game action, but will be with the team for warm-ups.
Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for students, with children 12-and-under free.
As per USports guidelines, proof of vaccination and a valid photo ID must be presented at the door for admission.
For more information on the U of S Huskies and Canada West men’s basketball, be sure to visit https://huskies.usask.ca/sports/mens-basketball.
