Cyclones Press Toilers

A blizzard may be brewing but on Tuesday evening the storm was blowing as the Central Cyclones defeated the Peacock Toilers 104 - 49 in senior boys city league basketball action.

The game featured three pointers, emotion, fast transition and a suffocating full court press in front of a packed Central gymnasium.

“It was a good game. Lots of energy which is to be expected in games like this. There’s always a lot of energy when we take on our crosstown rivals and stuff. I feel our boys maintained that (energy) throughout the whole game which is what we were looking for,” Kris Temple head coach of the Cyclones said.

The quick start by the Toilers did not have the Cyclones making changes. The Cyclones started the game with a three pointer and through almost five minutes of the first quarter held the lead.

“I’m not surprised (by Peacock’s fast start) they’ve got some good shooters. They came out and hit a couple, but it didnt phase us. We stuck to our game plan and it worked out,” Temple said.

A major part of the Cyclones game was the press and/or man to man vocerage.

“It’s just put pressure on the ball. Put pressure on the man. And play tough without fouling…”

Asked what he thought about arguably having what could be said to be the best senior boys basketball team in town he said nothing was set in stone.

“Maybe on paper but anything can happen. We feel we do have a good team but anything can happen in any game. So we don’t take any team lightly,” he said.

Defensively he said the Cyclones stood out.

“We did a good job of putting a lot of pressure on the ball which created a lot of turnovers which led to a lot of easy layups,” Temple said, adding “I thought we shot the ball well during the game. And the energy I was really impressed with.”

A large crowd brought out by the game being promoted as ‘Pack the Gym’ had the gym full. Something the coach said the team appreciated.

“You feed off of that energy. It’s great to see some many people out cheering for us, Central, or Peacock…it’s just great to see so many people out watching basketball.”

Tuesday evening’s attendance was at least 20 percent more than at the last ‘Pack the Gym’ promotion from last season.

He said he wished every game had that many cheering fans attend.

Hoopla, the Saskatchewan high school basketball championships, will be in Moose Jaw this year, and he was asked to comment about his feelings on it.

“We are defending champs and there’s nothing more we would like to do than repeat that this year.”

Despite the loss, it wasn’t devastating for the Toilers as they had many strong points and positives from the game Troy Setter head coach of the Toilers said.

“We started off hot. We hit some shots. We were really intense, but we just couldn’t maintain it for the whole game,” Setter said.

The start of the game saw the Toilers make a lot of hard shots - until the Cyclones press started.

The Toilers were seemingly hemmed in by the Cyclones press and were unable to make shots due to the pressure.

“The defence was a little lighter on us at the end (of the game). Yeah the guys played hard and Central is a good team,” he said.

The Cyclones taking off the press allowed the Toilers to play their full bench.

“I was happy once Central was up by 30 (points) they took the press off. That was good…that’s part of their game. That was good when they were up by 30 or 40 points they decided to take the press off. That was good as I was trying to play the rest of my guys and get everybody in there,” Setter said.

Getting all players on the floor is critical to player development.

“Everybody played. I shortened the bench up at the start of the game once they got ahead by 15 (points) I started playing the guys. The only get better if they play,” he said.

The large fan out from Peacock was appreciated by Setter.

About one-third of the packed Central Gymnasium were Peacock fans.

The Toilers next home game is scheduled for Thursday at 5:50 pm. The game is a makeup game due to last week’s bad weather and may be cancelled once again if the Lumsden Devils are unable to travel due to bad weather.

The Scoresheet