It wasn’t the final the Estevan Comprehensive School Elecs senior boys’ basketball team was hoping to win at their Energy City Invitational home tournament Friday and Saturday, but a 96-77 B-side championship victory over the Oxbow Black Knights did help the team realize what they have to do to come out on top.
“Losing our first game kind of opened our eyes and we realized that we might not be the best team around,” said Elecs power forward Reagan Wallewein. “We might have to fight to win every game and not just be laid back.”
The Elecs opened the tournament with a 55-54 loss to the Regina F.W. Johnson Wildcats on Friday night putting them into the B-side of the Energy City Invitational. The next morning Estevan trounced the Fillmore '33' Central Falcons 90-20 setting them up for the championship final that afternoon against the Black Knights, who fell 59-38 to the Moose Jaw Vanier Vikings on Friday before defeating the Lumsden Devils 72-36 Saturday morning. The Yorkton Regional Raiders defeated the Moosomin Marquis 63-48 in the A-side final.
After falling behind 5-2 to Oxbow early in the first quarter, Estevan took control of the game out-rebounding the Black Knights on both sides of the court and draining continuous shots from outside and in close. Estevan led 30-14 heading into the second quarter, which proved a much more competitive one for the Black Knights who were led offensively by guards Ben Macfarlane and Dave de Sagun. The Elecs went into halftime with a 53-36 lead.
Oxbow scored eight quick points on two three-pointers from Raymond Decena and Brandon Muir as well as a two from de Sagun to put the team within 11 of the Elecs early in the third quarter. Estevan came back to control the play despite a continuous drive to the basket from de Sagun resulting in a number of trips to the foul line when he wasn't hitting shots from outside the arc. Heading into the fourth down 70-49, de Sagun refused to give up and scored at will, but couldn’t bring his team ahead. Of the 77 points the Black Knights scored against Estevan, the Oxbow guard accounted for 57.
“I was just feeling the shot out there and I was just popping them in,” said de Sagun, who joined the Oxbow team this season along with Decena as co-operative players from Carnduff.
They knew heading into the game that Estevan would be a tough opponent considering their size advantage, so the plan was to outrun them, said de Sagun. He added the problem with that is the Elecs also had a bigger bench and were fresher than they were late in the game.
“It was a positive game in the sense that some kids understood (what) we were looking to do offensively and they can carry that forward into the practices,” said Elecs coach Dustin Wilson. “It wasn’t as competitive as we would have liked for our home tournament compared to last year when we were in the finals, but it helped us learn, (so we’ll) take it and move forward with it.”
Wilson said the Elecs were experiencing a bit of Christmas-break rust heading into their first game on Friday, but the tournament as a whole did allow the team an opportunity to come together and work as a unit. He said they have a strong team this season with big and athletic players and if they can master a tweaked offensive strategy of running more fast-paced schemes and outworking the opposition at the small stuff they should win most of their games.
“I’m expecting personally that we go to Hoopla and have a good showing there,” said Wallewein. “I’m hoping that we can maybe even get a medal there. I think everyone on this team is motivated and if we all push ourselves we can all come out on top.”
