ESTEVAN - Nine teams converged on the Estevan Comprehensive School's gymnasium on Friday and Saturday for the senior boys' basketball team's home tournament.
Each team played three times, except for the host ECS Elecs, who played twice. Estevan opened the weekend with a 74-68 win over the Yorkton Regional High School, but then lost 78-67 to the Lloydminster Comprehensive School.
Other teams entered were from the Weyburn Comprehensive, Regina's Harvest City, Balgonie Greenall, Regina Huda School, Melville and Porcupine Plain.
Elecs head coach Trevor Dutka was proud of how the team played at the tournament.
"I think we ran our offence really well [against Lloydminster], and we stepped up defensively. Our … defence was definitely coming into effect. Honestly, the second game was a two-point game, and then Lloydminster's shots started falling and ours stopped falling. And it was a little bit frustrating on our part because it was our home gym."
Yorkton and Lloydminster are teams the Elecs could encounter during the 5A boys' rural regional qualifier for the Hoopla provincial tournament later this year.
"I just set it up that we played two stronger teams in Yorkton and Lloydminster," said Dutka.
Three rural teams will qualify for provincials through the rural regional.
As for the other teams, Dutka said there was some great basketball played throughout the weekend. There were close games, and he said even those that were decided by at least 10 points were close at half-time. He believes just one team was winless and nobody went undefeated.
"The great thing about this tournament, that all the schools said, is you see different teams," said Dutka.
Many of the squads might not watch Lloydminster or Porcupine Plain during the season, and teams like Huda and Harvest City were unknown to some of the other entries.
"To see those teams, and see different looks and different offences and defences, and have to restructure your game against those teams, all it does is improve your teams," he said.
Dutka is pleased with the progress the Elecs have made so far this season. ECS is trying to get better as the season goes along, and that's especially true this year, as they had injuries earlier in the campaign. Estevan is playing better basketball now and just one player missed the tournament due to injury.
"We had to get guys off the bench and the non-starters had to step into starting roles and play a lot more minutes," said Dutka. "Those guys have stepped up, and as our starters come back, everyone's going to see a lot of playing time because everybody is capable of getting out there and playing the game. Everyone knows the offence and knows the defence and is playing well."
Up next for the Elecs is to be a tournament in Moose Jaw in early February, followed by the annual McLeod Series four-game showdown involving the senior boys' and senior girls' teams from the Estevan and Weyburn Comprehensive Schools. The games in Estevan would be Feb. 7 and the games in Weyburn are slated for Feb. 14.
