Muskie hoopsters prey on low-flying Eagles

The four Muskie court teams had mixed success in their first road games of the NorWOSSA campaign last Thursday, with both basketball teams manhandling the host Dryden Eagles and both volleyball squads coming home empty-handed.
The junior boys managed their second-straight win with a 48-28 victory—and exactly the kind of play coach Greg Ste. Croix wanted to see.
“I feel very good. It’s a great way to start the season,” Ste. Croix said. “[But] we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us—it was Dryden’s first game of the year.
“This is where we wanna be,” he added. “We wanna learn, we wanna develop, we wanna keep on winning.”
Chris Legg led the Muskies with 15 points, and also pulled down 10 rebounds. Also contributing were Joey Ballan (nine points), Justin Anderson (seven), and Josh Strain (six).
Ste. Croix added that he was “really impressed” with the play of Tim Metke.
“He’s a Grade 9 player, he sees the court really, really well, almost as a natural point guard,” he enthused.
“His name or number’s not going to show up on the scoresheet in terms of points, but he [Metke] just continually makes the right pass at the right time, which leads to good offensive chances.
“He’s also very reliable on the defensive end.”
The senior boys, meanwhile, dumped the Eagles 51-31 last Thursday to also improve their NorWOSSA record to 2-0.
“It was a much better performance than we did in the last game [against Kenora],” Muskie head coach Paul Noonan said. “It was a lot more disciplined.”
Leading scorers for the Muskies were Morgan Anderson with 15 points, followed by Jeremy Strain (12) and Kurtis Hill (eight).
Both girls’ volleyball teams had rougher outings against the Eagles. The juniors (1-1) battled to five sets, splitting the first four by scores of 12-25, 25-19, 21-25, and 25-9 before losing the tie-breaker 15-4.
The seniors, on the other hand, were swept by the Eagles by scores of 25-14, 25-19, and 25-8 to drop to 0-2 on the season.
Senior girls’ coach Duane Roen, who also coaches the junior squad on the road, said he saw what he needed to see from his players.
He compared his senior team to the junior boys’ team he coached in the first half of the NorWOSSA court sport season to a comeback 6-2 record.
“I think we’re starting out pretty much in the same boat,” he remarked. “The junior boys were really unsure of themselves [but] as their play improved, their confidence built.
“I think the girls will just start naturally playing better. That’s my hope, anyhow.”
Of the junior girls, Roen said “there’s a lot of potential on that team.”
“It’s just learning, again, organized volleyball. . . . I’m sure they’ll be able to put it together and be quite competitive,” he added.
All four Muskie teams are back in action here tomorrow afternoon against those same Eagles.