Swift Current Outlasts South Hill Comeback Bid

Photos and story by Robert Thomas

After a slow start the South Hill Royal Falcons turned in a big second half as they fell just eight points short against the Swift Current Colts on Tuesday evening.

The visiting Colts would see a large half time lead drift away defeating the Royal Falcons 87 - 79 in a crowd pleasing game.

The win sees the Colts remain unbeaten with a 4 - 0 record.

The loss sees the Royal Falcons move to 2 - 2 or fourth place in the senior boys city basketball league.

The game started slow for the Royal Falcons as they struggled to make baskets when they had second, third and even fourth rebounds under control only to miss largely in the First Quarter.

The Colts on the other hand managed to make many of their baskets on single shots and layups in the first half of play.

The Royal Falcons managed to temporarily take control of rebounding in the mud portion of the Second Quarter but the Colts regained control.

The Third Quarter saw the Royal Falcons push back against the Colts. South Hill jockeyed for position and often passed the ball around to achieve the best shot.

The Fourth Quarter saw the Royal Falcons play their best basketball of the night.

The Royal Falcons used three pointers to close the score gap.

South Hill managed to outplay Swift Current which found itself in major foul problems with just under for minutes remaining in the final quarter.

With just over two minutes remaining in the game the Colts lead had dropped to ten points.

“It was a fun game. I was really happy with how the boys played,” Royal Falcons head coach Kalen Senecal said, adding “we came out a little flat on the weekend in our last game and this is a really good rebound game.”

Over the past weekend the Royal Falcons were playing in the Assiniboia senior boys tournament where they came in second.

“We shot the ball well in the fourth quarter (today) and left a few points out there but besides that I think we executed our offence. Our defence could be a little bit tighter but over all I’m happy with the game,” Senecal said.

Tuesday night’s game was a game of missed opportunities for the Royal Falcons.

“I don’t even want to know what we shot from the free throw line today,” he said. “I don’t think that wasn’t our best shooting from the free throw line.”

He estimated the Royal Falcons additionally left behind ten points on the floor from missed layups.

“That’s tough.”

The push since January has been for the Royal Falcons “to play a little bit crispier bRebounding and finishing those are the kind of things we’ve been working on and cleaned up by March. If we can do that we should have a really good playoff run.”

Tuesday’s game was a stellar effort by South Hill as they did no allow Swift Current to take total control of the game.

“I hope we can keep going with that moving forward.”