Toilers Outlast Surging Cyclones
Story and Photos by Robert Thomas
For close to three quarters the Peacock Toilers junior boys basketball team held their opponents the Central Cyclones Gold team relatively easily at bay.
After the First Quarter the Toilers lead 20 - 9.
At half time the Toilers lead the Cyclones 38 - 18. A seemingly insurmountable 20 point lead.
After three quarters the Cyclones continued to lead 54 - 29 an increase in the lead.
But then the Toilers faltered and led by consecutive steals by Central’s Grady Neufeld the race to win the game was against the clock.
The Toilers rushed the play not using the clock as their friend allowing the Cyclones to outscore them 21 - 4 in the final quarter.
The once 25 point lead was only seven points as the Toilers outlived the Cyclones for a 58 - 51 victory.
Toilers Top Scorers:
Kaison Skeoch 14 points
Nate Measner 10 points
Trustin Koroscil 7 points
Cyclones Top Scorers:
Tylan Galley 7 points
Harrison Pethick 7 points
Exhause Isingoma 6 points
Peacock Toilers junior boys head coach Raman Mall said despite the win there were good and bad points with the Toilers play.
“We came out good for the first three quarters but then a little bit of a lull near the end. It was good for both teams. I think Central played well at the end and we’ve got some stuff to work on early in the season,” Mall said.
Asked about Central’s fourth quarter surge he said it was doggedness.
“Central stuck with it the entire game. They kept their attitude and effort there and we lost a little bit of pep in our step at the end and they came back.”
With the Toilers up by such a large margin - 25 points - at the end of the third quarter the issue of time management by Peacock came up as a question.
“Yeah we did (not use the clock properly) and we forgot to play defence there too. We are use to running and gunning so it caught up with us.”
When a team has a large point advantage near the end of the game they use ball control to hold onto the ball as long as possible to run down the clock.
Teams in the lead will often use as much of the 24 second shot clock as possible to help run down the game clock.
“We could have slowed it down and controlled the tempo more,” Mall said, adding “we had our bench in a little bit longer than we wanted to. But it also gave them some experience.”
Asked if he perhaps left the bench in the game almost too long Mall said it’s all part of the goals for junior basketball - development.
“It is junior basketball so we’re looking to make sure that everybody develops. That’s something we are trying to do with is team is get everybody on the bench in (the game). Regardless if it is the third game of the season or gets into playoffs,” he said.
“That’s one of the goals of our coaches I have no issues with having them in.”
The role of junior basketball is to help develop players and their skills to later play senior basketball so playing in difficulty is actually good.
“It’s also an opportunity to have them grow. Get into these situations when you’re under stress. And you know panicking and what not. But we still got the win in the end.”
“They all learnt from it. We had a good chat with them afterwards and they were understanding the things we have got to work on.”
When asked about what the players need to work on Mall said much of it is making the jump from elementary school to high school basketball.
Areas the team needs to work on are defence, communication and clock management.
“One thing we have to work on is just talking. A lot of these kids when they come from elementary school to high school they forget it’s not elementary ball. They forget to communicate on defence and offence. It’s high school ball. It’s a bigger gym. It’s higher tempos. There is more contact,” he said.
“It’s a different game for these boys.”
This year five team members are returnees to the team.
