It was a tough battle but the Muskie senior boys’ basketball team walked off the court at the Kenora Invitational Tournament last weekend as the champs.
“We won it but it wasn’t easy,” enthused head coach Paul Noonan. “It was a great tournament.”
The Muskies went up against the Thunder Bay Wolves in the final Saturday and were able to pull out an exciting 39-37 win.
“The ball was in our possession and with 30 seconds left on the clock, we called a time out,” recalled Noonan.
“We told them to run the clock down to five seconds and than have Evan [Woodland] drive the ball to the basket,” he added. “It was a great plan but Evan rimmed out.
“[But] he got the rebound back and tipped it in with one second left on the clock.”
Noonan joked it could have been a movie. “Just as the ball went in, the buzzer went off and all the guys ran onto the court.”
Woodland was named the tournament MVP.
The black-and-gold had opened the eight-team tournament Friday night with a convincing 78-33 win against St. Thomas Aquinas (Kenora).
“We played the whole team. It was a good warm-up game,” noted Noonan.
Gary Wager led the attack with 20 points, and was named the game MVP. He was followed by John Sivonen (15), Jock Gemmell and Woodland (10 each), and Jamie Algie (8).
Noonan said their semi-final match against Kildonan East (Winnipeg) proved much more difficult than they had anticipated. The Muskies pulled it out 63-50 but had only led 26-22 at halftime.
“The other team had full court man-to-man defence, which forced us to stay with our starters a lot longer,” Noonan said, though adding the Muskie defence forced Kildonan to shoot from long-range (which they were missing).
Noonan added his players were able to make nine of 12 foul shots in the last quarter to seal the win.
“It was close until that last quarter. That is when the spread increased,” he noted.
Woodland, who led the team with 28 points, was named the game MVP. “Evan was solid from start to finish that game,” said Noonan.
Sivonen was next with 18 points while Wager chipped in six.
But the best game came last when the black-and-gold went head-to-head with the Thunder Bay Wolves for the fifth time this season.
“They had a much deeper bench than us. I think their goal was to try to wear us down,” Noonan remarked.
“We ran with the starters for 95 percent of the game,” he added. “We had a two-minute substitute for Evan but the rest of the guys played the whole game.”
The Muskies were trailing 15-8 by the end of the first quarter but they pulled up their socks and led 19-17 at halftime. Then they were tied at 32-32 going into the fourth quarter.
That’s when the wear-and-tear of the weekend began to show, said Noonan.
“By the fourth, [we] were very tired and started to make careless errors. But the defence never gave out and held them to five points,” he noted.
“Yeah, they made mistakes but they wanted to win and got it.”
Sivonen, who was named the game MVP, was the Muskies’ top scorer with 11 points. Wager was next with 10, followed by Algie (eight), Gemmell (six), and Woodland (four).
Although Woodland only had four points, Noonan said they were the most important of the game.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
