The Estevan Comprehensive School (ECS) Elecs senior girls' basketball team brought their community and basketball world together this weekend for their sixth annual Shoot For a Cure Pink Tournament.
The Elecs raised $5,000 for two-year-old Presley Marshall, a local toddler who is fighting Philadelphia Chromosome Acute Leukemia, at the Pink Tournament. They achieved this amount through donations from community members and participating teams, including donations of over $100 by the Shaunavon Silhouettes, Moose Jaw Peacock Toilers and Swift Current Ardens, a canteen run during the tournament by the players’ moms and various fundraising activities put on at the school before the event.
“I’m so thankful,” said Elecs head coach Jessie Smoliak, noting GMR Electric Motors Ltd., Ross Jon, the Estevan Student Basketball Association, the Holman family, the Elias family, the Estevan Rookies Over-30 hockey team, Eecol Electric and Westburne Electric Supply made significant contributions. “We had a couple teams bring a donation and just the community, we had so many community members come forward and donate. It’s for such a good reason and paying it forward is such a good thing to teach my girls. I’m always trying to make them better people and this was one way of showing it and developing them into responsible young ladies.”
The Elecs sported pink uniforms in the eight-team tournament’s games, which were played in a gymnasium that was adorned with pink ribbons and balloons. The team got the on-court action started on Friday afternoon with a 64-39 win over the Assiniboia Rockets, who began the Pink Tournament tradition in 2009, before falling 46-44 in overtime to the Swift Current Ardens placing them in the third-place game with the Indian Head Broncos.
“Estevan’s a very skilled team,” said Broncos head coach Dave Clark, who helped grow the Pink movement with Smoliak by borrowing and wearing the Rockets’ pink uniforms for their home tournaments six years ago. “They’re just a little bigger than us. I thought foul trouble became an issue for us with three starters with four fouls. Nobody fouled out, but it was size that (made) the big difference.”
Elecs captain Tess Lindquist led the team off the opening tip off against the Broncos scoring their first seven points including a three from the top of the key to start off the action. Estevan controlled the play in the opening quarter leaving Indian Head with primarily outside looks while Elecs point guard Tatiana Dutka and centre Kourtney Kobitz continually made plays in the paint leading to a 25-16 score after one.
The Broncos pushed the play in the second quarter distributing the ball and capitalizing on Elecs’ turnovers. Riding the inside game and prowess from beyond the arc of Kylie Weckend, Indian Head came back to tie the score at 31-31 entering the half.
“We changed our offence to try and get more looks and driving at them to get them into foul trouble,” said Smoliak, about their plan entering the third quarter. “They got back into the game because it just seemed like my girls were tired in the second quarter…so I fired them up again, said ‘this is their home tournament. If you want to end it off on a positive note, we got to kick start it and feed it to each other.’”
Kobitz and Lindquist helped their team jump ahead offensively in the third quarter with Elec Morgan Fichter continuing her game-long battle for ball possession in the frame. Kobitz scored seven of her 17 total points in the quarter, while Lindquist notched six of her 16 to give the team a 51-41 lead entering the fourth. With the momentum in their favour, the Elecs’ offence rolled along in the fourth quarter finishing with a 67-48 win.
“We just really came together and wanted to play as a team and it worked out for us,” said Elecs senior player Teanna Michel.
The Moose Jaw Peacock Toilers won the A-side of the tournament in the following game with a dominant 56-34 win over the Swift Current Ardens. Toilers assistant coach Kristy Ooninex said they got the win through working hard as a group, but supporting the Pink Tournament’s cause also played a part.
“It’s really great to see them all coming together as a team and playing for the people that they’ve lost and people battling cancer,” said Ooninex. “Why we come to this tournament is to support this cause and it’s just a wonderful job by the school putting this tournament on.”
Smoliak said the Pink Tournament was their final game action before the regional playoff in Prince Albert (PA) the weekend of March 11. She said the team will battle PA Carleton Comprehensive, PA St. Mary's, Notre Dame, Yorkton and Swift Current at regionals with the top two teams at the tournament earning an invite to Hoopla the weekend of March 18 in Moose Jaw.
“We really gelled together this tournament,” said Michel. “We came together as a team and we think it will help us come into playoffs.”
Fellow Elecs senior player Avery Dunbar said the Pink Tournament allowed them to not only play the sport they love as they get ready for regionals, but also to give back to someone in the community who is battling cancer. That sentiment was echoed by Lindquist.
“A community getting together and supporting each other is really cool to see,” she said, “especially living here all your life.”
