Mitch Calvert
Spikers
win silver
It was a little closer than they would have liked, but the Muskie senior boys’ basketball team kept their undefeated NorWOSSA season intact with a 56-46 victory over the Kenora Broncos in the league final here Friday night.
The black-and-gold led by as little as 43-40 after three quarters, but were able to make some key shots down the stretch to land the knockout punch on a scrappy Broncos team.
“Kenora definitely came out to play [Friday],” Muskie coach Paul Noonan said. “They were shooting well, got a lot of three-point shots in there, and never quit.
“You want to win a game, but you want to win it against a worthy opponent, and they were that today,” he lauded.
Garnet Cornell led all shooters with 22 points while Travis Stromness netted 13. Willard Henry and Joseph Young had 13 apiece for the visitors.
Next up for the seniors is a clash with either the Westgate Tigers or Churchill Trojans of Thunder Bay (to be decided later this week) for the chance to advance to the all-Ontarios.
The junior boys’ basketball team, meanwhile, capped an impressive season in their own right with a 43-40 win over the Kenora Broncos in the NorWOSSA final on Friday.
Dustin Eyolfson had 11 points while Cody Brown netted eight for the host Muskies. Aaron Roy led the way for the Broncos with 13.
There is no NWOSSAA playoff at the junior level.
It was not quite a storybook finish on the volleyball court, however, as both the Muskie senior and junior teams lost to the Dryden Eagles in their respective finals here Friday.
The seniors advanced to the final with a three-set victory over the Broncos, but the Eagles proved to be too tall a task to overcome in a straight-sets sweep by scores of 25-19, 25-11, and 25-19.
Fort High jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the first set and had the crowd behind them, but Dryden regrouped to take the first set 25-19.
The Eagles then powered ahead 9-1 to start the second set and the Muskies couldn’t recover.
The seniors deserved credit for closing a 16-6 deficit in the third set to 16-14, but couldn’t come all the way back to steal it away.
The juniors needed five sets to beat Kenora in the semi-final earlier Friday, but then were swept by the Eagles by scores of 25-17, 25-9, and 25-17.
