Senior hoopsters provide OT thrill

It was a play that had never been successfully executed. So, of course, it was exactly the call coach Mike Busch wanted to make.
Kevin Gemmell, who had 22 points in the game, came off a double screen to swish a threepointer at the final buzzer of regulation time, then his teammates took it from there as the Muskie senior boys’ basketball team beat the Warren Collegiate Wildcats 86-81 in overtime to capture Pool ‘B’ of an invitational tournament in Brandon last weekend.
“We put in a 10-seconds-to-go play the week before, but it never worked even in practice,” chuckled Busch, who coached his troops to a 3-1 record at the tournament.
“But I called it, anyway, and the boys ran it to perfection,” he added. “We’ve only ever ran it to shoot a two-pointer, but we needed the three.”^The Muskies, who trailed by six points with 1:30 to go, weren’t about to waste their second chance.
They trailed by four early in the extra session before taking over the game, thanks to the hot shooting of Cullan McGinnis, who scored 20 of his team-high 26 points in the fourth quarter and overtime.
“We know now we’re never out of a game, no matter what,” said forward Andrew George. “When we have the kind of offence we do, we can do whatever we want to.”^Guard Andrew Mueller said the tournament could be just the ticket to propel the Muskies to the NorWOSSA title—and beyond.
“We’re certainly more confident, being an ‘AA’ team, about our NorWOSSA chances when we see how well we did against these ‘AAA’ teams,” Mueller said of their tournament opponents in Brandon.
“It’s great that we got the experience of playing against a higher level of teams.”^The Muskies launched their tournament run with a crushing 76-39 victory over the Hapnot Collegiate Kopper Kings (Flin Flon) on Thursday night after playing earlier in the day against the host Kenora Broncos in NorWOSSA action.
“We went to a full-court press and man-to-man defence to get their legs going after sitting so long in the van [to Brandon],” recalled Busch. “Having the game delayed by 45 minutes certainly helped.
“We were platooning guys, bringing five in at a time, so everyone stayed fresh and got lots of playing time,” he added.
The top scorers were unavailable by press time.
A difficult start to their second game put the Muskies behind powerhouse Daniel MacIntyre Collegiate (Winnipeg) by 20 points after the first quarter.
Fort High battled the tourney favourites evenly throughout the final three quarters, but couldn’t make a dent in the lead as Daniel MacIntyre coasted to victory.
Swan Valley Regional Secondary School was the next challenge for the Muskies, who had to fight hard to stay within six points over the first three quarters.
The Muskies’ depth then started paying dividends in the fourth quarter as they went on a run to lead by five.
That caused Swan Valley to abandon their structured offence in favour of a flurry of three-point attempts which, for the most part, were unsuccessful as the Muskies captured their second victory to finish 2-1 in their pool.
The final scores and top scorers from these two games also were unavailable by press time.
A 74-55 semi-final victory for the black-and-gold against the Windsor Park Tigers (Winnipeg) featured large momentum shifts in the first half—and a dominating Muskie squad in the second.
After jumping out to a big early lead, Fort High felt the Tigers’ bite in the second quarter as Windsor Park led by two at halftime.
But the Muskies composed themselves during the break, then proceeded to outscore the Tigers by 20 in the third quarter to take firm control of the game.
Gemmell had 21 points to lead Fort High against Windsor Park, with McGinnis netting nine. Firstyear Muskies Craig McTavish and Anwar Chabloui each added eight.