Sarah Mills: Tom Cruise should get an Oscar for his support of movies
Sarah Mills says Tom Cruise should get some recognition for the work he's done to promote movies. She says Cruise should...
The LeBoldus Golden Suns girls basketball team and the Saskatoon Holy Cross Crusaders boys basketball team are both heading home with some new hardware.
The Saskatoon Holy Cross Crusaders staved off a comeback attempt by the Leboldus Golden Suns and clung onto a 71-68 victory to claim the Luther Invitational Tournament title for the first time since 2010.
The Saskatoon Holy Cross Crusaders were up by a point with 20 seconds to go but Noah Flaman missed both of his attempts.
The LeBoldus Golden Suns corralled the rebound and advanced up the court. LeBoldus Grade 12 student Cade Mather drove to the hoop with five seconds left but his shot was blocked and no foul was called on the play.
Holy Cross’ Seth Hundeby fetched the rebound and was fouled, sending him to the line with four seconds left. Hundeby would hit both free throws for the final baskets of the game and give Holy Cross the 71-68 victory.
“It’s awesome. We came in here hoping for the best and just to get better. To win, it really means a lot,” Hundeby said.
Assistant coach Taylor Hammel played in the tournament as a member of Holy Cross in 2013.
“It’s a prestigious tournament and it’s always great to win it here,” Hammel said. “We have such a special group here that works hard and they know they want the win and they’ll do anything for it.”
Meanwhile the LeBoldus girls team, who won the 2019 Challenge cup at LIT, defeated the Raymond Comets 73-55.
The LeBoldus Golden Suns girls basketball team after winning their second straight Challenge Cup at the Luther Invitational Tournament on Feb. 9, 2020. (Britton Gray/980 CJME)
“It feels awesome. It’s such a big thing. There’s lots of heritage and tradition in (this tournament) and since the girls’ (division) hasn’t been around for a long time. It’s really cool,” said Jade Belmore following her team’s win.
In the process of helping her team capture their second straight title at LIT, Belmore became the tournaments all-time girls scorer, finishing her LIT career with 165 points. That total also places the grade 12 student eighth all-time at the tournament. She was also named the tournament MVP on the girls’ side.
It wasn’t easygoing early for the Golden Suns girls team en route to winning their second straight title. The team was down 14-7 before rattling off a 22-3 run to end the first quarter.
“To be honest I was a little surprised,” LeBoldus girls head coach Garret Kot said. “The one thing that we kind of stress in practice and we have for years is defence. There’s always going to be those games where your shooting just isn’t going in for any reason, which was kind of the case for some of our girls in the first half.”
The game would end up being tied by halftime but the Golden Suns would take control of the game in the second half en route to their victory.
Maren Tunison, also a senior member of the LeBoldus girls team, says the LIT tournament can help the team get into the right mindset ahead of city finals and provincials.
“We come out of Christmas break, have a couple tournaments, LIT caps off those tournaments,” Tunison said. “Then it’s a couple games and practices and then its right into playoffs and the finals and provincials and everything.”
The tournament also marks another milestone in the high school careers of Belmore and Tunison.
Both are seeking their third straight provincial title and both are set to join the University of Regina Cougars in the fall.
“It’s the home team. I’ve always dreamed of playing with the Cougars,” Tunison said. “It’s what you think about growing up – you think I’m going to put on that green and gold and that’s what ended up happening.”
Belmore is looking forward to heading to the next level with someone she’s familiar with.
“It’s awesome. We’ve grown up (together), we were on the same club team so it’s going to be cool,” Belmore said.
Kot said the team is focused on provincials and defending their title, but he also acknowledges how special it is to win this tournament in back-to-back years.
“For the first (LeBoldus) girls team to have back-to-back banners, you can look up there and there’s a handful of the boys teams that have that but for (this group of) girls to be the first ones to do that – years from now hopefully the girls come back into the gym and they see that and they realize what kind of special thing that is,” Kot said.
