Lumsden Picks Up Christmas Present Early

It was a tough night for the Peacock Toilers senior boys basketball team as they saw a 20 point lead evaporate and turn into a 73 - 70 loss to the visiting Lumsden Devils.

The game could best be described as one of persistence by Lumsden and one where Peacock lacked full time intensity.

The final few minutes of the game saw the Toilers running into major foul problems where the Devils capitalized. The Toilers for their part would miss key baskets that could have won the day.

The Devils tied the game with just under two minutes to go.

The Toilers Kaisan S would score two three pointers with Tye J also notching a field goal.

But it was free throws that one the game as the Devils final six points came from the line.

Lumsden Devils head coach Drew Schenk was happy to pick up a win against one of the Moose Jaw city league’s bedrock teams.

“They showed a lot of resilience. They showed a lot of fight,” Schenk said about the Devils’ play.

“When they were down by almost 20 (points) they could have packed it in and said ‘hey it’s Christmas holidays and what not’ but they fought. So I give them lots of credit.”

The win is the Devil’s first of the season tying their one win league regular season record from last year.

The comeback was unexpected and came out of nowhere Schenk said.

“The comeback was crazy. I looked up and it was 20 and then I looked up again and it was 12. Then I looked up again and it was about six or seven. So I think they just dialled in on defence and they put everything they had on defence to win the game,”

Lumsden got some turnovers through their defensive play and despite not shooting the ball well.

“When we hot some runouts we were able to make some baskets which is good.”

Despite calling the win “cool” Schenk commented on Peavock’s head coach Troy Setter’s game strategy.

“I know Troy got to play all of his guys and everybody got minutes which was nice to see. It was just a good win.”

Like the Toilers the Devils gave court time to the entire team.

“Everybody got to see the floor tonight. We were a few guys short tonight but the guys that came really brought it,” he said.

The Lumsden team has 14 players on the roster this season and for the first time in a number of years there were tryouts to get on the senior boys basketball team.

In the past Lumsden’s basketball program has been in contraction with the COViD - 19 pandemic restrictions hitting the sport and numbers hard.

This year the Devils have not only a senior boys but also a JV boys team something that makes Schenk happy in his 30th year of coaching basketball.

“We’ve got a lot of interest out in the valley in basketball which is nice….there was a lot of disinterest but it is coming back which is nice to see,” Schenk said.

The Devils’ plan and goal for the season is a simple one - improvement.

“We just hope to keep on improving. We hope to make some strides forward and put in a few more things offensively and defensively to give our guys a different look against teams that we play. Yeah we just want to get better,” Schenk said.

The game’s outcome was decided in a hard fought battle the Devil’s came out on top of Toilers assistant coach Mac Simpson said.

“They came hard and we pushed and we pushed but ultimately they went up that little bit and they took advantage of that and took the win,” Mac Simpson said.

The Toilers’ game had some strong points.

There is a lot of good to be pulled out of today. We were down early and able to fight back. You know we had great chances all the time. But sometimes it doesn’t fall for you I guess,” he said.

The Toilers had a Grinch messing with a few of their shots. While Santa was helping out the Devils with gifts on the free throw line.

“Sometimes things just don’t fall for you. They were going up and it would go in and you’d wonder how did they hit that?”

Playing against Lumsden just two days after the tough battle with the Central Cyclones wasn’t a factor in the game’s outcome for Simpson.

“I don’t think so. We have just gotta come in ready. We have to have a hard battle every game,” he said.

Not playing a full intense game is what Simpson sees as the big reason for the Toilers loss.

“We got that big lead and just let off.”

A major thing to happen for the Toilers was that all their players got in on the game.

“All of our players touched floor. Everyone played great. If they weren’t on the scoresheet they played great defensively. It just comes down to yeah if the shot’s not falling you have the chances and miss a couple of easy baskets.”

The Toilers are now on their Christmas break.

No it isn’t The Phantom the mask is to protect a broken nose - MJ Independent photo

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