Junior girls rout Atikokan

Leave it to Mother Nature to throw a wrench in the best laid plans.
The Muskies’ junior girls basketball team was supposed to host an eight-team tournament on Friday and Saturday at Fort High. But organizers were forced to cancel the event when all but one of the teams pulled out due to poor road conditions.
But all was not lost for the black-and-gold as they managed to get an exhibition game played against the one team that did arrive—the Atikokan Voyageurs.
The Muskies dominated the Voyageurs—who normally compete in the NorWOSSA ‘A’ division—from the opening tip-off and cruised to an easy 29-4 victory.
Despite the lopsided outcome, head coach Dan Bird was pleased with how his team applied some of the lessons taught in practice to a game situation, particularly the team’s shot selection, passing, and effort at the defensive end.
Bird said the team showed a more consistent effort than that put forth the previous day against the Broncos in Kenora.
“We were looking to get some quality shots off compared to what we did [Thursday against Kenora], which we did,” he remarked.
But while the coach liked what he saw for the most part, Bird believes there still is a lot of room for improvement—especially concerning the Muskies’ work on the boards.
“We still had some lapses in some shots where we didn’t have the rebounders in position, which we want to work on,” he noted.
“When we put up the shot, we want to have a rebounder, or preferably two rebounders, underneath the basket.”
The junior Muskie hoopsters’ next chance to show they’re absorbing the lessons taught in practice comes tomorrow (Thursday) when they travel to Dryden to face the Eagles.
The Muskies built an early 6-0 lead over Atikokan in the first quarter of their exhibition match-up on Friday.
The home side added to their advantage in the second quarter, tallying seven more points while limiting the Voyageurs to a single bucket. As the buzzer sounded for halftime, the Muskies held a commanding 13-2 lead.
Lauren Gurski kept the black-and-gold rolling in the third quarter, scoring four of the home side’s eight points in the frame.
Fort High’s defence, meanwhile, continued to smother their opponents, once again limiting them to a single basket.
At the end of the third quarter, the scoreboard read 21-4 for the home side.
Post players Taylor Meyers and Jamie Holliday controlled the fourth quarter, adding a combined seven points to round out the scoring.
Gurski led all Muskies scorers with eight points while Kayla Windigo anchored the defensive effort with seven steals in the game.