Junior boys claim gold Senior girls lose in five-setter

It’s not how you start, but how you finish.
The Muskie boys’ junior basketball team certainly exemplified that yesterday in Kenora with a dominating 56-30 win over the Dryden Eagles in the NorWOSSA final.
“Throughout the season, Mr. [Claude] Gagnon told us that it wasn’t really the season that mattered, it was more of just how we finished,” said Jordan York, who repeated his head coach’s words.
The game essentially was won after the first quarter in which the Muskies found themselves ahead 23-8—an extraordinary offensive display considering a NorWOSSA game consists of four eight-minute quarters.
“It [was] the best I’ve seen them play this year, but that was our plan,” said Gagnon, whose team had beaten the Kenora Broncos 40-33 in the semi-final earlier Thursday.
Things would only get better from there as the Muskies grabbed a 34-11 lead at halftime. Dryden closed the gap a little in the fourth quarter, but the black-and-gold held their own over the final eight minutes to capture the gold medal..
Anderson led the way with 11 points against Dryden, which had earned a bye to the final as the top team from the regular season. Garnet Cornell added nine, followed by Jerry Therriault-Maitel (eight) and York (seven).
High scorers for the Muskies against Kenora were Anderson with nine points, followed by Scott Gurski (seven) and Therriault-Maitel (five).
Meanwhile, the senior girls’ volleyball team was the only other Muskie squad to reach the finals yesterday in Kenora.
After a tight five-set victory over the host Broncos in the semi-final by scores of 23-25, 26-24, 18-25, 25-22, and 15-12), the Muskies advanced to face the top-seeded Dryden Eagles for NorWOSSA goal and a trip to the NWOSSAA final.
The Muskies had been swept in all four of the regular-season matches to the Eagles, but obviously saved their best for last—taking the Eagles the full five sets before bowing out and settling for the silver medal.
“We finally came together as a team for the first time this year and did it when it really mattered,” said Bryden McCoy.
The black-and-gold took the first set 26-24, but Dryden promptly evened the match by winning the second one 25-15.
The Eagles then won the pivotal third set 25-19, but the Muskies refused to die—pulling out a 25-21 victory in the fourth set to set up the fifth-and-deciding one (which only is played to 15).
They wound up losing the final set 15-7.
“Winning would’ve been the icing on the cake, but Dryden played strong all season,” said Muskie head coach Char Bliss. “But today the girls really stepped up and played how I knew they could play.”
The Muskie senior boys’ basketball team wasn’t as lucky yesterday, falling 70-59 to the host Broncos in the semi-final (Kenora later went on to win gold and the NWOSSAA berth over the Dryden Eagles).
“They never gave up even though they were down 15 points,” head coach Paul Noonan said of his players. “They were playing like it was a one-point game.”
The Muskies fell behind 23-11 after the first quarter and could never fully recover.
“It was too little, too late it seemed like,” said Scott Galusha. “We started to bring it on at the end of the game, but we couldn’t hit a shot in the beginning and they couldn’t miss one.”
High scorers for the Muskies, who were winless in league play this season, were Anwar Cheblaoui with 16 points, and Fraser Gibson and Craig McTavish (seven each).
And finally, the Muskie junior girls’ volleyball team, which had not lost to Kenora during the regular season, fell 3-1 in their best-of-five semi-final showdown with the Broncos there yesterday.
Kenora jumped out to a 2-0 lead by scores of 25-23 and 25-20. The Muskies battled back to win the third set 25-18, but the Broncos sealed the match by winning the fourth set 25-19.
Dryden wound up winning the gold medal by sweeping Kenora in the final.
“We spent all week strategizing against Dryden, and how we were going to play against them today, and we never really thought about Kenora,” said head coach Duane Roen.
“We were ready for Dryden, but we weren’t ready for Kenora,” he admitted.