And just like that, another round of the McLeod Series has wrapped up.
The 88th edition of the storied high school basketball rivalry saw the best basketball players from Estevan Comprehensive School and Weyburn Comprehensive School leave it all on the hard court last night. Despite the split decision, Estevan was still victorious, being crowned back-to-back champions. The ECS Sr. Girls Basketball Team widened the gap even more, winning their match 71-38. Meanwhile, the Sr. Boys fell to the Eagles 73-60. The final score between the two games is 278-230 in favour of Estevan.
"I was really proud of the moments where they played together as a unit, both offensively and defensively, and the whole point was to create even of a more significant lead for the boys going into their game. Obviously, take some pressure off of them going into that game with the lead we created," shared Larissa Smeltzer, the assistant coach for Elecs girls.
The Elecs girls team battled hard in the first half of their match against the Eagles. Estevan didn't let off the gas in the second half and widened the game more. The WCS Eagles were down 12 points at the half, but the gap widened throughout the third and fourth quarter. "We executed [in] the first half. Second half, I think we got tired. They started hitting shots," added Karley Johnston, the Eagles' girls head coach. "I think this McLeod Series has pushed us to try new defenses because we had to exo certain people and so we had to learn a few things in the last week and a half."
"As a team, I think we just need to take this momentum and what we did well offensively and focused really hard on defense to take that into our home tournament, regionals, and then hopefully HOOPLA," Smeltzer said.
It was the opposite on the boys' side of the series, where the Eagles got the better of the Elecs in the first half of the game. Estevan was already down 42-27 by the end of the second quarter, but they would soon narrow the gap in the dying minutes of the game. Elecs head coach Trevor Dutka said that he's proud of his team's efforts, despite the loss. "We knew what we had to do. We didn't execute the way we probably wanted to, but again, we're a young team and we'll be battling and we battled back again. We were down by 22 and we came back and battled within seven [points]. So it's a learning process for the guys and I'm proud of them."
A big takeaway for the Elecs, Dutka noted, is the level of maturity the team has gained after playing in this series. "You don't get to play in front of 600-700 people. It's packed in there and people are yelling and screaming - and I think that's the biggest thing. The boys and girls both mature a lot from seeing games like this or playing games like this because they're intense. As they get more and more mature, that's the way they play better basketball."
Though they knew they had to cover about a 54-point spread to win the series, Chandler Dionne, the WCS Eagles Sr. Boys head coach, said the team kept pushing hard. "We just knew we were in a deficit by 54 points, so we had to get those turnovers, push the ball and just score as many as we could. We didn't get the 50 points, but we still got the W."
For Weyburn, their key takeaway from the match is to keep pushing and suppressing the momentum their opponents have. "Just play[ing] hard. Teams are always going to have that run. You just got to limit that run and, hopefully, we can stop that. Teams are always going to make that run - you just got to be ready for it."
Both the Eagles and the Elecs will be busy this weekend. Both girls teams will be in Estevan for the Victor Elias Shoot for the Cure PINK Tournament. Meanwhile, the Eagles boys are off to Moose Jaw and the Elecs boys are off to North Battleford this weekend for their respective tournaments.