Cyclones close out regular season with wins
The Central Cyclones looked like a welloiled machine in their final game of the Moose Jaw high school boys basketball regular season and it couldn’t have come at a better time for the local squad. The new month brings with it the most important games of the season, and is often the rallying cry for coaches everywhere – it’s not how we’re playing now, it’s how we’re playing in March.
For Central after their 122-70 win over the Assiniboia Rockets on Feb. 27, it’s looking as good as can be – the win ensured the Cyclones would cap the regular season undefeated with an 8-0 record and closed up first place.
But that’s not nearly enough, says Grade 11 standout Kyle Boughen
“It’s fun to go undefeated, but we want to keep going and push through to a provincial title,” he said after leading Central with 31 points in the contest. “We have regionals and Hoopla coming up and we want to win gold for Moose Jaw, that’s our goal overall.”
Against the Rockets, the Cyclones continued their season-long strategy of essentially ‘rolling the lines’ with their five-on-five-off substitutions keeping the team fresh while still racking up points. “We have kids coming off the bench who could start on other teams in the city easily, they’re just as good if not better,” Boughen said. “I think they play just as hard as us and work just as hard as us and that’s why they’re so good when we go five-on-five-off... we can take anyone off the bench and they’re just as good as our starters are because anyone can come on and they’ll be an exact replica hopefully.” Making the Cyclones even more dangerous is their universal offensive ability, as seen by the scorers from the regular season finale – Jaxon Brownell scored 24 points, Riley Seaborn 13, Hardil Khubber 12 and Ethan Johnson 10, giving Central five players in double figures. “We pride ourselves on our defence, mostly, but when our offense is going well we can score,” Boughen said. “We’re not the tallest or the strongest, but we try to be fast and quick and score that way.
That’s one of the reasons we can play like we do.”
The Rockets’ Logan Fettes capped his impressive campaign with 32 points; Marcus Navalo added 14. Assiniboia (0-8) will now face Caronport (2-6) in the fourth-fifth place game on Mar. 6, with the winner of that game playing the Cyclones at Central on Mar. 8. Peacock (5-3) will face Vanier (5-3) in the other semifinal.
In girls action, the Cyclones found themselves in a relatively close battle through the first quarter with only a six-point 1711 lead. Central turned up the defence after the break, through, outscoring Assiniboia 24-6 in the second to take a 4117 lead. Seeing that kind of defence was exceptionally positive according to Grade 11 guard Katie Coulson, who capped the contest with seven points.
“It feels really good, because you can’t win without good defence and it’s nice to do that well when we work hard,” she said.
Nylah Seaborn and Kirstie Johnstone each scored 18 points for Central, Alexa Watterson added 16 and Ashlyn Jesse 10. The Cyclones finished the season with a 6-2 record and will face the Vanier Spirits (2-6) in their semifinal game on Mar. 8.
“I think we’ve grown a lot since the start of the season,” Coulson said. “We’ve put a lot of work in and I’m proud of all of the girls and how they’ve played... we’ve come a long way, for sure. I think it’s pretty even where we’ve improved; defensively we’ve come a long way and offensively we’ve done a lot better, so we’re pretty happy with it and we’re looking forward to the playoffs.” Maura Belles led Assiniboia with 13 points.
In Caronport, Spencer Adams scored 24 points to lead the Peacock Toilers to an 85-69 win in boys league play. Jude Shepherd Hills had 25 points for the Cougars.
Peacock capped their season at an undefeated 8-0 with a 72-34 win in Caronport. Scoring information was unavailable. The Cougars will host Assiniboia in the fourth-fifth place game on Mar. 6, with the winner taking on Peacock in the semifinal on Mar. 8.