Spartans run out of gas against Garden Valley

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This article was published 16/12/2024 (275 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

High school sports teams often learn more from losses this time of year, rather than just from winning a plaque.

The Neelin Spartans dropped the Source for Sports Division final 75-59 to the Garden Valley Zodiacs Saturday afternoon but in the process hope to gain more from the adversity.

The Zodiacs had three tournament all-stars, including most valuable player Ethan Wiebe, a six-foot-nine centre that dominated despite being tired from the grind of five games in two-and-a-half days.

“What these guys do is really play well off Ethan,” said Zodiacs head coach Danny Friesen. “Ethan draws so much attention it creates opportunities for other guys to step up and take advantage, make a difference in various ways. It’s never the same guys that are stepping up. It’s always Ethan and then someone else and it’s great to have that level of depth.”

Wiebe’s inside presence led to a game-high 30 points and five blocks, which came after another 30-point performance in his team’s 86-62 win over Dauphin in the semifinal.

Wiebe’s shots through the first three quarters didn’t convert at a high rate, but he hit a big three once the target score was set, sending his team to the victory.

“The legs were a little tired today. Playing five games is tough, but I made the important one. It was a feel-good moment,” Wiebe said following Saturday’s final.

Wiebe plans to play university basketball next season but hasn’t officially committed as of yet, so to get an individual accolade is nice but not something he’s overly focused on.

“It’s my first one, so it feels pretty good but it doesn’t really mean much because our goal is to get to provincials and get that one.”

Strong starts were a recurring theme for the Spartans and was again in the final. Very similarly to Friday, Kal-El Wilson won the tip, this time to Owen Falk, who made the game’s first basket just four seconds into the game.

Garden Valley answered back with a 15-2 run, a lead they held onto for the entire game.

Neelin managed to trim the deficit to as much as six late in the third, but Garden Valley immediately answered back with two fast break buckets to restore the comfortable lead.

The sting of losing the home tournament serves as an opportunity for the Spartans to gain insight early in the season.

“We learned about the other teams and learned about our team and what it will take to be better in March,” said Junior Martine.

“It will make us work harder in order to be better at the end of the season, so it will motivate us to be better later.”

The Carberry Cougars were one of the surprise teams of the tournament, as the AA squad pushed Neelin in the semifinal. The Cougars led at the half before running out of gas and Neelin’s depth sustained the Spartans in the 79-57 victory.

“For any early season games like this we really want to challenge ourselves,” said Cougars head coach Chris Unrau. “We were getting good looks and shots that we want to take, just sometimes they weren’t falling. It’s good to play competition that might be harder than we’ll see in the regular season, so for now we just want to bring that compete level and know that we can play.”

Wiebe reiterated the sentiment of wins not being the be-all, end-all in a tournament like this, but rather early season lessons that benefit in the long run.

“We weren’t coming in here for wins. We were coming in to see what we could do as a team and try to find our identity. We lost a lot of good players from last year, so our goal was just to come in and see what we could do.”

Martine and Kwali Taylor of Neelin were named tournament all-stars, along with Adam Ghberzghi and Asher Cortez of Garden Valley and Dauphin’s Nick Hudyma.

» mpackwood@brandonsun.com