Carlton squares off with the Regina Riffel Royals in HOOPLA action in Prince Albert last year. (Logan Lehmann/paNOW staff)

By Logan Lehmann

Provincials on the line

Local teams set to launch at 5A High School Basketball Regional tournaments

Mar 15, 2024 | 3:00 PM

High school basketball teams are gearing up for an important weekend as regionals are set to take place in schools across the province.

Regionals are a one-and-done tournament style, meaning just one loss is all it takes to lose the chance to play HOOPLA Provincial Championships. The top three teams from this year’s regionals will punch their ticket to the provincial tournament which will be held in Moose Jaw next weekend.

Both of Prince Albert’s major high schools are participating in the 5A regional tournaments with the St. Mary and Carlton boys teams heading West to Lloydminster. Eight other schools will join both Carlton and St. Mary at the tournament including Lloydminster, North Battleford Comprehensive, Weyburn, Estevan, Warman, Yorkton Regional, Swift Current, and Balgonie.

Head Coach for St. Mary’s boys team, Dave Seto, said his team is prepared to hit the ground running come tipoff.

“Playoffs are always exciting,” he said. “This is the weekend you work five months to get to so we’re obviously nervous but at the same time excited. With this group, we’ve been to the last two HOOPLA Championships, so the team generally knows the excitement around it.”

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For the girls, Carlton and St. Mary don’t have to travel anywhere as the 5A girls regionals are being played at St. Mary High School and will also be a 10-team tournament with the same schools as the boys attending.

St. Mary Head Coach Dwayne Gareau said playing on home court presents the team with some key advantages along with some disadvantages.

“There’s positives and negatives to hosting,” he explained. “One of the positives is that you’re sleeping in your own bed, you have your home cooking, you have more of what you do every single day so there’s that consistency there. There’s also some added pressure when you’re playing at home with larger crowds or more friends and sometimes that works out as a positive but also a negative. It is an advantage to be at home – home rims, we’re used to the lighting, we’re used to the court size and to use, we’ll take that more of a positive than a negative.”

Carlton girls Head Coach Kelsey Pearson also said there are positives and negatives to playing in their hometown but adds that the game plan won’t change much from what it was during the season.

“The game plan is to just go out and play basketball, leave it on the court,” she said. “The girls are nervous and we talked a bit about [how] if you’re nervous, it’s good it means you care. Defensively, we’ve been getting better all year. Offensively, hopefully we don’t have trouble scoring and we can put the ball in the hoop and have a successful weekend.”

Games for either tournament got underway Friday morning with play wrapping up on Saturday night.

Friday’s schedule for the St. Mary and Carlton teams is as follows:

Boys

St. Mary vs Estevan – 4:15 p.m.

Carlton vs Swift Current – 6:00 p.m.

Girls

Carlton vs Estevan – 4:30 p.m.

St. Mary vs Weyburn – 8:00 p.m.

Saturday’s matchups are to be determined and will be based on who wins and who loses on Friday.

A full and constantly updated schedule can be found by clicking here.

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loganc.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com