Lucas Punkari
The Muskie senior and junior boys’ basketball teams will have the shortest route possible to capture their respective NorWOSSA titles here next Wednesday.
Both squads clinched first place in the regular-season standings with victories over the visiting Dryden Eagles yesterday afternoon, which gave them berths in their respective league finals.
The seniors finished with a 7-1 record after a convincing 49-27 victory over the Eagles, with Caleb McIntosh leading the way with 16 points.
“The defence the Eagles were playing was to try and take both Caleb and Will [Anderson] out of the game, and they did a good job of that in the first half,” said Muskie head coach Bryce Coyle.
“As a result of that extra attention those two were getting, our other players got a lot of open looks, which they weren’t able to capitalize on early,” he noted.
“But in the second half, they were able to make those shots and our defence was able to hold Dryden to just eight points.”
The junior boys, meanwhile, wrapped up a berth in the title game with a 39-21 win over Dryden here yesterday, giving the team a 6-2 record in regular-season play.
“We had a couple of really good practices this week where the guys were all working really hard, and it showed,” said coach Jeff Vandahl.
“We made the most of our opportunities, we took care of the basketball, and we also worked hard on defence, and that was the difference.”
Darren Lundgren led the way with 15 points.
But both Muskie girls’ volleyball teams had a disappointing end to their regular seasons yesterday, losing in straight sets to the visiting Eagles.
The seniors fell by scores of 13-25, 22-25, and 15-25, which saw them finish in third place with a 1-7 record.
“Our first set didn’t go all that well, but in the second set the girls were very strong,” head coach Duane Roen noted.
“The girls were making fewer mistakes out there, and our blocking was very strong, with Erika Moffitt just blocking balls like crazy,” he added.
The juniors ended up in second in the NorWOSSA standings with a 4-4 record following their sweep to the Eagles (15-25, 25-27, and 22-25).
“Despite the loss, it was still a good [match] and the girls played really well,” said coach Jason Cain.
“We knew going into this [match] that we were going to be playing in the semis no matter what, so we tried some different combinations and tried a couple of different things in the last set, which seemed to work well at times,” he explained.
After travelling to Thunder Bay this weekend for a tournament hosted by Lakehead University, both volleyball squads will face the Kenora Broncos in their respective NorWOSSA semi-finals on Wednesday (Feb. 15).
The final schedule for the playoffs still is being finalized, but action is slated to get underway at 10 a.m.
