The Raiders men’s basketball team are two-time Saskatoon Senior Men’s Basketball League (SRML) champions after beating the rival Pantologists 95-89 in a well-played back-and-forth ‘C’ division final in April before a loud crowd of over 100 fans at Saskatoon’s Aiden Bowman Collegiate.
Ian Kadlec, a guard for the Raiders, said they hoped to meet the Pantologists in the final because that would present the biggest challenge, but the game did play out a little closer than they wanted. He said the two teams, who both went 13-3 during the regular season and 2-0 in the playoffs leading up to their April 13 match, exchanged baskets during the game with the Pantologists holding a slim lead throughout most of the second half.
Kadlec said the strong inside play of Luke Edwards and brothers Anthony, Michael and Chris Eliason helped the Raiders stay in the game. He said their shots weren’t falling in the third and fourth quarter, but they kept battling and hitting their free throws before finally taking the lead for good with a timely steal and a few made foul shots in the last two minutes.
“Luke had a pretty big steal,” said Kadlec, who scored 13 points against the Pantologists. “He had a four-point swing for himself at one (point) in the game in the third quarter where we were down (by) six and he scored a basket and then they in-bounded the ball and there was some pressure in the front court and he got a steal and scored again. That kept the game close.
“Then right at the end we were trailing by two points actually and we had a full-court press on again and Reid (Thuringer) got a steal and went down the court and tied the game and we just closed it out with free throws down the stretch.”
Raiders guard Kattlyn Williams said the 60 or 70 Raiders’ fans that made the trek to Saskatoon to cheer on the blue and white made the final a fun game to play. He said the players don’t really hear the crowd when they’re on the court, but every time there is a stoppage the sound of the crowd cheering for either a big play the Raiders just made or a nice score by their rival makes a huge difference.
“When you hear your fans cheering it helps your momentum and it just makes you push a little harder,” said Williams. “Then when you hear the other team’s fans cheering you really got to try and slow their momentum down because they’re usually cheering for a good reason. It was a loud gym. It was super intense all the way through that whole game. It was just back and forth.”
To read more please see the May 12 print edition of The Davidson Leader.