Royal Falcons Advance To City League Final
Story and photos by Robert Thomas
“Don’t change anything,” Gravelbourg Hawks’ JV boys head coach Jeff Jacobs told his players during the halftime break.
The Hawks had just been seriously outplayed in the second quarter by the South Hill Royal Falcons in the Moose Jaw city league JV (Junior Varsity) boys.
Despite trailing at the half the Hawks owned the third quarter.
But a fourth quarter collapse by Gravelbourg saw South Hill win the semifinal game 70 - 51 and advance to the Moose Jaw city league final.
Royal Falcons Matt A (left) tries to stop the Hawks Gian Magdarog
The First Quarter saw the Hawks dominate play with an aggressive style of play.
The Hawks employed a strong full court press combined with accurate shooting and strong rebounding.
With just under a minute to go the Hawks broke their game plan and rushed the play to score more baskets.
The Royal Falcons took advantage of the Hawks lapse to steal the ball twice and score four points.
The score at the end of the quarter was Royal Falcons 13 and Hawks 12.
The Second Quarter saw the Royal Falcons break the press by long passes and strong defensive rebounding by Cooper G.
The score at halftime was South Hill 35 and Gravelbourg 30.
Hawks Ayden Jacobs (left) pursues the Royal Falcons Cole B
The Third Quarter saw a resurgent Gravelbourg team successfully employ the full court press.
Gravelbourg outscored South Hill 21 to 14 in the quarter cutting the deficit to eight points.
The score at the end of the quarter was South Hill 49 - 41.
The break between the third and fourth quarters saw Royal Falcons head coach Kalen Senecal tell his players that the Hawks had the momentum but don’t allow it to bother you.
South Hill came out strong in the Fourth Quarter and employed long passes over the head’s of Gravelbourg to successfully break to the inside and make baskets.
The Final Score was South Hill 70 and Gravelbourg 51.
Top scorers for South Hill:
Drew Biette - 21
Wyatt Craik - 14
Top Scorers for Gravelbourg:
Adama Zoundi - 10
Hawks Ayden Jacobs jumps to grab a defensive rebound
For Royal Falcons head coach Kalen Senecal the Hawks strong start and play came as no surprise.
“As I said at the start of the year I know Gravelbourg is a very athletic team and I knew they were improving a lot. They gave us a scare in Gravelbourg earlier in the year as well…we played them to a 15 point game too before and they’ve improved so much.”
On January 11th Gravelbourg lost 71 - 49 to South Hill but at the end of the third quarter the score was tied 35 - 35.
Senecal said he had a lot of respect for the program being built in Gravelbourg “and it is a really good thing to be seeing.”
Asked about the Hawks third quarter surge he said it was a cause for concern.
“They run a very good press and at times we lost our composure. We had conversations on the bench of hey how can we regain that momentum.”
The Hawks Rahim Senou (left) reaches for the ball against the Royal Falcons Drew Biette
He said once the Royal Falcons had the conversation on how to run their offence that they had success.
The Hawks managed to disrupt South Hill’s game plan and playing style.
“We are a team that generally plays outside in and Gravelbourg forces us to play inside out…Wyatt Craik had a great game where he was inside and getting a lot of tough buckets. Drew Biette had a great run in the second quarter and he had many steals and was able to drive hard to the rim. He almost dunked in the game which would have been fantastic to see.”
“It was really important that we were able to attack the rim and score against good defence,” Senecal said.
Gravelbourg also shot well.
The Royal Falcons Drew Biette (left) reaches to block a basket by the Hawks Manny Pagan
“Again they’re a young team that’s improving lots. I believe they will be a force great in the rural league in the next few years to come,” he said.
The Royal Falcons - made up of students from Cornerstone Christian School and Riverview Collegiate - hope everything comes together with the city league finals as well as the 3A conferences they’re hosting in 10 days.
“We just need to play good basketball in March. We have a lot of aspirations what this team can do in the next couple of weeks. Our big hope is we can play good basketball regardless of the team we’re playing. We will be in a good spot,” Senecal said.
The 3A conferences will be held at Riverview Collegiate next weekend with six teams participating.
The Royal Falcons Matt A (left) gets his arms up to prevent a pass by the Hawks Manny Pagan
For Gravelbourg head coach Jeff Jacobs the loss is tough but he was happy with the strong play of the Hawks.
He looked back at the team’s improvement over the season.
“I was quite happy actually. When we sunk our first basket right at the beginning I said we are already off to a better start than the first time here,” Jacobs said.
When it was pointed out the Hawks have improved massively over the season he said the team had.
“Tremendous athletes I should say.“
Royal Falcons Cooper G tips off against the Hawks Adama Zoundi. Both Cooper and Zoundi were key players for both teams when it came to rebounding
About the play of Adama Zoundi - who seemed to be everywhere blocking shots, grabbing rebounds and scoring baskets - he said it was all about gelling as a team.
“The key is to play as a team,” he said, adding “the big thing with the Burundi guys is they played a lot of basketball back home but never in a team setting. So fouls and everything to them was all new. Being in a gym like this is all new.
Gravelbourg has several players from Burundi who are in town to learn English. Zoundi is one of the students from Burundi.
“It’s been learning experience by all of us.”
The Royal Falcons Bench during a timeout
Asked about his telling the players to continue with the game plan Jacobs said he saw it working so why change it.
“It looked like it was working. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. It was working good and I felt we were doing good.”
Despite being hurt hard in the second quarter the strategy paid off for the Hawks in the third quarter. They managed to outscore the Royal Falcons 21 - 14 in the quarter. The closed the lead to eight points.
The Hawks Adama Zoundi (center) jumps to successfully block a shot by the Royal Falcons Drew Biette
South Hill managed to crash through an open inside lane to produce scoring opportunities. It also drew fouls.
“One of the things has been foul trouble this year. And with a team like this that is a great foul shooting or free throw shooting team you just can’t do that. It just gives it to them that easy,” Jacobs said.
About using a full court press - which often draws fouls when a player reaches in - he said “live by the sword, die by the sword.”
Despite the propensity to draw fouls he said the Hawks still plan to use the press.
I think we will keep doing what we are doing because we have a big bench and a lot of great athletes. We will just keep pressing and getting ready for conferences.
The full court press was key to the Hawks game plan. Here two Hawks players hem in Royal Falcons Drew Biette into the corner of the court
Jacobs said Gravelbourg’s return to the Moose Jaw city league has been a good experience.
“It’s been great. We’ve learnt a lot and we played a game in Notre Dame. We have never played there before. So that was neat to see.”
The Hawks managed to split the series 1 - 1 against the Hounds.
“We’re happy with the whole year really,” he said.
The Hawks Peyton Petersen (left) manages to get a shot past the Royal Falcons Drew Biette
The Hawks will be back in Moose Jaw next week for conferences.
The identity of the Royal Falcons opponent was unknown at publication time.
Also with job actions by the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation the game planned for next Tuesday has yet to be rescheduled.
The scoresheet
