Dave Leaderhouse
Special to the Herald
The weather outside might have been frightful, but the level of basketball being played inside the St. Mary High School gymnasium was delightful as Prince Albert’s two senior boy’s teams competed in the annual Food Bank Game on Wednesday.
The Carlton Crusaders grabbed the lead early and never relinquished it as they built a 20-point advantage at one point before finishing with a 96-86 triumph over the St. Mary Marauders in front of a large and boisterous crowd.
“It was a great game to see where we are at,” said Carlton co-coach Randy Emmerson moments after the contest. “We got everybody in the game and we got to work on a lot of things.”
Emerson MacCuaig led the way for Carlton scoring 30 points in addition to retrieving numerous rebounds. Everett Moccasin-Rourke also had a strong showing for the Crusaders finishing with 14 points while Clarence Ermine and Zane Litzenberger each chipped in with 12.
“They are a great team, but we missed some chances,” acknowledged St. Mary head coach David Seto. “It was a pretty exciting game.”
Kyrean Murphy had the performance of the night with 37 points for St. Mary while Tymoor McKay added 16 for the Marauders, who at one point in the fourth quarter had narrowed the deficit to five points before Carlton sealed the victory with several late baskets.
Both teams have had strong starts to the Saskatchewan High Schools Athletic Association season with the Crusaders having won their own tournament last month while the Marauders brought home the gold medal from the Centennial Chargers Charity Classic in Saskatoon last weekend.
“We’ve had a pretty good month,” admits Seto. “It’s setting us up for an exciting year.”
“I would like to think we are the two best teams outside of Saskatoon,” added Emmerson.
The ultimate goal for both squads is to get into the provincial HOOPLA tournament which will be held the final weekend of March. The next step in preparation to achieve that goal will be more tournament action with the Crusaders heading to Saskatoon for the Bedford Road Invitational Tournament (BRIT) in early January while the Marauders will follow that up with a trip to Regina to compete in the Leboldus Invitational.
While the game was the main attraction for the evening, the big winner was the Prince Albert Food Bank. A table was set up at the entrance to the gymnasium where non-perishable items were collected in lieu of an admission charge. Several large boxes were packaged with the items and will be delivered to the local food bank in time for the upcoming Christmas season.
