Cyclones Take Painted Pants Classic

Tuesday evening was “Pack The Gym” night at Peacock Collegiate as the Toilers took on their arch rivals the Central Cyclones in senior league basketball.

With a gym mostly full and a former teacher cheering in painted pants the Toilers senior boys basketball team came out strong.

But it was not to end the way the Toilers and their fans wanted as the Cyclones walked out with a 117 - 73 victory capturing wins in both of their city league meetings this season.

The game started slowly for the Cyclones. Something taken advantage of by the Toilers.

“It was a good game overall. We came out a little bit slow. I think we were a little bit sluggish. We had a long tournament on the weekend and the boys are a little bit banged up. But the boys ended coming up with some extra energy in the second half which was great,” Central Cyclones head coach Kris Temple said.

The tournament - Shootout ‘25 in Winnipeg - saw the Toilers lose two players to injury for Tuesday evening’s matchup.

Peacock Toilers cheering pants - MJ Independent photo

“Initially we were a little bit sluggish and as the game went on we started to move the ball a little bit better. We started hitting some open shots. We started playing better defence. All those kind of things,” Temple said.

He said the Cyclones’ strong points were ball movement and knocking down the shots when they’re there.

The Toilers were disappointed in the loss.

“It was a tough one. Kudos to Central they shot the lights out. We expected some of that. They played hard on both ends of the court. We had some good looks tonight but we couldn’t connect and finish off some of our offence,” Peacock Toilers assistant coach Raman Mal said.

“We had some breakdowns on D but we’re looking for goods and bars in our game and how we can improve on them,” Mal said.

Despite the loss the Toilers have improved massively in what is a rebuild year.

“We’ve gone a signicantly good distance. We are getting better every game. Even now just coming out of the locker room talking to the boys post game we talked about good and bad. We talked about making good steps for progression next game, next opportunity and maybe next time we see Central,” he said.

“It’s just taking every game and making the kids better from it.”

The weak point for the Toilers is their defence.

“We’re scoring 70 points per game which you should be there. You should be in the game if you are scoring that much. When your opponent scores more, significantly more it means defence is where you should be focusing on.”

A big event the Toilers are now focusing on is their Helping Hoops tournament at the end of February that will see 16 of the top 5A senior boys basketball teams at the school.

The Scoresheet

Editor’s Note - People ask why I include so many photos and different croppings and I do it because the kids ask for them.

Also it gives the newspaper a better choice to select