Lucas Punkari
While it might seem that the Muskie junior girls’ basketball team has an easier route to capturing a NorWOSSA crown than their senior counterparts, both squads will face interesting and difficult challenges tomorrow in Dryden.
The seniors (2-6), who finished the regular season in third place, will have to win two games in one day, starting with their semi-final showdown with the Kenora Broncos at 11:30 a.m.
If they can beat Kenora, the first-place Dryden Eagles then await them in the final at 7:15 p.m.
The junior girls, who earned a bye to the final thanks to their league-leading 7-1 record during the regular season, won’t take the floor until 3:45 p.m., when they’ll face the winner of the earlier semi-final game between Kenora and Dryden.
“It should be a good battle between them in the semi-finals,” noted Sara Faragher, who coaches the Muskie juniors alongside Marla Knutsen.
“And even though Dryden has a better record going into the playoffs, you never know what is going to happen in that last day of the season,” she added.
“It’s a nice advantage to have that bye into the final and have a little bit of rest going into that game, and we are just hoping for the best.”
The Muskies clinched the bye with a 38-33 win over Dryden in their regular-season finale here last Tuesday, which also marked the team’s seventh-straight victory.
“I think we had a really clutch finish in that game, and it was great to have that type of game before we went to NorWOSSA,” Faragher said.
“It was close throughout and it felt like a playoff game out there, which is really good for the girls to experience that before the playoffs,” she reasoned.
After a season-opening loss to the Eagles back on Sept. 22, the Muskies seemingly have been unstoppable since then, with both Dryden and Kenora yet to find a way to solve the black-and-gold’s attack.
“The whole team has improved so much over the year, and Marla and I are so happy with how every single player has done this season,” Faragher lauded.
“I think the biggest thing for us is just the knowledge that the girls have in our systems, such as our full-court man press and our zone trap, which are relatively new concepts for most players, especially our Grade 9s.
“So for them to grasp it and do it without thinking, and to also make the other team commit a lot of turnovers with those systems, is a big thing for us,” she stressed.
However, that regular-season success goes out the window once the playoffs roll around, which is something both Faragher and Knutsen have been mentioning to their team leading into tomorrow’s final.
“We just want to stay focused and make sure that the girls are not complacent in our play,” Faragher said.
“We’re working on adding something new into our game to bring a surprise factor for the finals against either Dryden and Kenora,” she added.
“And we will be working on a lot of game situations, as well, to make sure that the girls are working hard and that they are focused.”
Meanwhile, the senior girls were assured of a third-place finish after losing their regular-season finale 43-25 to the Eagles here last Tuesday.
“Dryden played probably their best game against us all year in that game, which was bad for us but good for them,” explained head coach Dan Bird.
“I think we really missed having that key point guard position with Mary Strain not being in the game, which I think played a huge part in the game.
“We talked about executing with consistency what we practice throughout the week in order to prepare for our opponents, and we just didn’t do it consistently,” he sighed.
But despite finishing at the bottom of the standings, Bird still is confident in the chances of his team having a Cinderella run in tomorrow’s playoffs, especially with how tight the three-team NorWOSSA senior loop has been this season.
“That’s the advantage of having a system like this because you are never out of it,” he stressed.
“Yeah, we can get into the finals and we can win that gold-medal game, but it’s just about getting these players to believe that they can do that.
“Winning and losing is a funny thing sometimes, and winning can sometimes be as much of a disadvantage as losing can be,” Bird added.
“It’s all about how you prepare for the next game, and in the practice this week we’ve been getting the girls mentally prepared and working on the skill side of things,” he noted.
