In a game where the defences ruled the day, a little offensive production went a long way.
The Vanier Spirits were able to persevere and edge the Central Cyclones 49-40 in Moose Jaw Senior Girls Basketball League play Thursday.
“One of our coaches says we always win ugly,” said Vanier coach Bob Gottselig. “We won ugly.”
In senior boys action Central beat Vanier 85-56 and Caronport beat Riverview/Cornerstone 60-38.
Spirits 49 Cyclones 40
Central led after a quarter before Vanier took a 24-22 lead into the half.
The Cyclones weren’t able to build off of their solid first half as they trailed the rest of the way.
“In the first half we did a lot of things we’ve been working on in practice, so that was nice to see,” said Central coach Jocelyn Wigmore. “It was almost like I had a different team in the second half and we got away from the things that were working for us.”
At the same time, Vanier had chances to extend their lead but struggled to convert on some of their chances.
“We missed too many baskets inside,” said Gottselig. “We need to be better from that distance. We work hard to get the ball under the basket and we need to finish.
“We had lots of good offensively possessions, but we didn’t finish as well as I would like us to.”
Central had chances to cut into the lead, but only managed six points in the fourth quarter.
“We have to get a little hungrier,” said Wigmore. “That’s what hurt us a bit with our press — we weren’t taking chances and attacking — and we allowed them to beat it easily.”
The Cyclones did a decent job of handling Vanier’s pressure, but weren’t able to generate points from their press-break.
“I thought on the offensive side of it and breaking their press we were awesome,” said Wigmore. “We usually struggle with that, but I thought Kelsey (Heebner), Hayley (Henrikson) and Lindsay (Fish) did a really good job of using each other and passing through the press.”
Marisa Hartman led Vanier with nine points and Abbi Flanagan added seven.
Paige Newans led all scorers with 15 points for Central, while Fish added 13 for the Cyclones.
Cyclones 85 Vikings 56
Vanier did a good job of hanging with the unbeaten Cyclones for a half, but in the second frame they pulled away.
The Cyclones took a 35-28 lead into half time, but nearly matched that by dropping 26 points in the third quarter alone.
Myles McDougall scored Central’s first 10 points and finished with 16. Zach Schutte added 20 for the Cyclones.
Austin Avery and Cass Follensbee each had 13 points for the Vikings.
Cougars 60 Falcons 38
Brendan Adrian led Caronport with 22 points, while Jonny Toews added 14 points and Inyota Mwunvaneza chipped in with 10.
Austin Howe paced Riverview/Cornerstone with 19 points.
