Dave Leaderhouse
Herald Staff
It is a weekend the St. Mary senior boy’s basketball team won’t soon forget.
On the trip home from Meadow Lake where they won their fourth tournament this season, the van they were travelling in left the road south of Green Lake and became stuck in high snow drifts.
A school bus from Green Lake retrieved the team and transported them to Big River where they were housed at the high school for the night. A tow truck was then dispatched to bring the van to Big River.
They have yet to see their van!
Coach Dale Regel says personal belongings are still in the van, but it hasn’t shown up yet. To make matters worse, their stay in Big River was interrupted due to alarms going off in the school in addition to people showing up to see who and why the group was there long after it was set up for them as accommodations for the night.
P.A. Northern Bus Lines sent a bus up to Big River on Sunday morning to bring the group home, more than 12 hours later than their expected time of arrival.
As far as the basketball went, St. Mary enjoyed another gold-medal finish in Meadow Lake, similar to events held in North Battleford and Birch Hills and at Carlton Comprehensive High School in Prince Albert.
Brian Tolentino led the offense with 18 points and Aaron Halyk had 20 rebounds as St. Mary outscored Carlton 90-48 in the championship final. St. Mary opened the tournament with a 105-29 victory over Onion Lake and they followed that up with a 73-69 decision over Warman with Tolentino once again pacing the attack with 21 points.
Results for Carlton’s two earlier games were unavailable.
Both Carlton and St. Mary will have next weekend off as they prepare for exam week with the next tournament on the schedule being an event in Yorkton the first weekend of February.
The senior girl’s teams from Carlton and St. Mary were both at a tournament in Moose Jaw on the weekend and once again the local schools faced each other in a playoff game, although a medal wasn’t on the line in this encounter.
After each team won two of its first three games, Carlton and St. Mary met in the fifth-place game of the 16-team tournament with Carlton prevailing 41-20.
Katelyn Mitchell led the Carlton offense in that game with nine points and she also was the top scorer in Carlton’s opening win over Humboldt with 11 points. Aadyn Olexsyn topped all Carlton shooters with 14 points in a 41-36 setback to Meadown Lake while Morgan Braaten led the way with 12 points in a 48-20 victory over Moose Jaw Central. In three of the Carlton games every player on the team had a hand in the scoring, which was a pleasant surprise for coach Jennifer Ferguson.
St. Mary beat Fillmore 37-33 in their first game of the tournament before losing 54-33 to Moose Jaw Peacock in a game coach Dwayne Gareau called their best effort of the season. St. Mary then got past Balgonie 41-35 to set up the match against Carlton.
The senior girl’s teams will also take a break next week for exams with Carlton getting back on the court in two weeks when they travel to Warman. St. Mary will play a couple of exhibition games right after exams before heading to Meath Park in three weeks for another taste of tournament play.
