Staff
It was a night of firsts in Fort Frances Men’s Basketball League action Tuesday night at Fort High.
The first game saw the Muskies taking on winless Arctic Cat.
Sporting a much shorter bench, and a much better overall game, Arctic Cat came out of the gate strong in building a substantial 24-11 lead at halftime before going on to nab their first victory by a 58-51 margin to improve to 1-2.
The Muskies (1-2) didn’t make things easy for the team in green as they stormed back on Kobi Ward’s game-high 23 points and took a 47-46 lead with two minutes left.
But Arctic Cat wasn’t to be denied as both Jake McIntosh and Joey Theriault hit “threes” in the final minutes to help lead Arctic Cat to its first victory.
The second game of the night saw the BDO Ballerz square off against Sunset Landscaping.
Coming in having yet to win, and having been mostly outplayed in their first two games, BDO looked for a spark with veterans Rob McGinnis and Todd Richards on the court for the first time this season.
Their defence definitely was up to the task, as was Sunset’s in the first half, as the teams combined for a meager 32 points in the opening 20 minutes.
The Ballerz (0-2-1) got their offence going in the second half and only were down 38-33 with 3:30 to play.
They eventually knotted it at 37-37, forcing Sunset (1-1-1) to call a time-out with 15.5 seconds left.
Hoping for a clear last shot, Sunset tried to set up a play but BDO shut them down and the game went into overtime.
The extra frame started with a clean “three” from Sunset’s Cody Johnson, which promptly was answered with a clutch shot from beyond-the-arc by Jeff Campbell, who ended the night with a team-high 12 points on four three-pointers.
Sunset took the ball back up the court and Josh Pawluk calmly swished a 20-foot jumper to give them a two-point lead.
But BDO worked the ball down low to Chris Wall, who used his size to get a lay-up.
And that was it for scoring as the clock ran out and the game ended 42-42 in the league’s first tie of the season.
The final game of the night saw a battle of two unbeaten teams in the Revco Renegades and RBC Lions.
This game had it all–hot three-point shooters, nice in-the-paint work, massive comebacks by both teams, lead changes, and even a double-technical.
After an 11-11 start, RBC went on a 15-0 run to grab a 26-11 lead.
But Revco found their shot and stormed back with an 18-3 run of their own, which sent the game into halftime tied at 29-29.
In the second half, Revco continued to get good shooting from both John Sivonen (18 points) and Brad Wardas (13 points) and pulled away with what seemed to be a comfortable 48-39 lead.
But RBC, behind the lay-ups of Sam Soderman (21 points) and the three-point shooting of Brady Jenson (24 points), pushed back to within one.
Into bonus foul-shooting, Soderman missed a shot but a mental miscue by Conrad Dueck gave him the ball back at the line and he promptly sunk two shots to give RBC the lead.
Another foul shot made by Liam George increased RBC’s lead, and some missed throw-ins by Revco (2-1) meant a victory that looked secure ended up being thrown away as RBC (3-0) took the close contest 56-53.
Due to the Muskies being in NorWOSSA action next Tuesday (Dec. 4) in Kenora, they won’t play until the final game of the night against Sunset at 8:30 p.m.
The Lions will square off against the Ballerz in the early game at 6:40 p.m., followed by Revco and Arctic Cat tangling at 7:30.
