Lucas Punkari
While a 1-3 record may not have shown it, Muskie junior boys’ basketball head coach Jeff VanDahl was pleased with the progress his squad made during a pre-season tournament here over the weekend.
“We haven’t been playing together for all that long, to be honest, so this weekend was all about having the guys coming together and building along that,” VanDahl explained.
“As the weekend went along, we developed more of a presence out on the court, especially in rebounding the ball and our overall position, which made a huge difference, for sure,” he added.
The black-and-gold suffered a pair of losses Friday, falling 39-24 to the Winston Churchill Trojans (Thunder Bay) in the afternoon and 38-28 to the Kenora Broncos that evening.
After being run all over the court by the International Falls Broncos in a 65-9 setback Saturday morning, the Muskies came right back and finished off the tournament with a 40-26 victory over the Dryden Eagles in the afternoon.
“It’s always a good feeling when you can finish a tournament off with a win,” VanDahl smiled.
“In between the games today [Saturday], we worked on a few things that we saw out there,” he noted.
“And it all started to build up in that last game of the day, so we are glad to get a victory.”
Leading the Muskies over Dryden was Darren Lundgren, a Grade 10 player who moved to Fort Frances from Winnipeg over the summer, with 26 points.
Lundgren, who has been playing basketball for five years and suited up for St. James Collegiate last season, also saw the progress the team made over the weekend, especially in their win over the Eagles.
“Most of the guys that are playing on this team are brand new to this type of basketball,” he explained.
“Early on in the weekend, I think we were a little confused out there and we were not playing as a team,” he admitted.
“But as we played some more games, we started to make better passes and shots, which allowed us to score more baskets.”
Lundgren also led the team with eight points in the loss to Kenora while Robert Empey paced the team offensively with six and three points in their setbacks to Winston Churchill and International Falls, respectively.
With their exhibition slate now complete, the Muskies will spend the next two weeks strengthening their game as they get ready for the NorWOSSA regular-season opener on Wednesday, Dec. 21 in Dryden.
“I think we’re going to be needing to work on making sure we are better on things like keeping out of the key and also our rebounding, even though it has gotten a little better,” Lundgren remarked.
“I think this team has the potential to win every game that we play,” added VanDahl.
“But in order to do that, we need to work on the things that any team has to have in order to be successful,” he stressed.
Meanwhile, the senior boys’ squad are currently preparing for their home tournament, which will they get underway on Thursday night at 6 p.m. against Baudette.
Following that contest, the Muskies will play Dryden at 12 p.m. and Kenora at 6 p.m. on Friday, before they wrap things up at noon on Saturday against International Falls.
“Going into the tournament, we’ll just keeping working on the things that we need to work on both defensively and offensively, along with our specialty plays such as our in-bounding,” he added.
The Muskies did see some in-game action last Tuesday in a friendly scrimmage over in International Falls, where they took on teams such as the Broncos and the Littlefork-Big Falls Vikings.
“I think those games were a big wake-up call for the guys,” Coyle remarked.
“In our first two or three games there, we played as bad a game of basketball as you could play as there was a lot of mistakes and the intensity just wasn’t there,” he recalled.
“The guys started to get a little chip on their shoulder and in the last game they were completely fired up, and it was like a switch had come on.
“They wanted the ball, they were a lot more physical, they were playing a lot harder on defence, and they were fighting for rebounds so it was a total 100 percent difference,” Coyle noted.
Like the junior hoopsters, the seniors will begin their NorWOSSA campaign Dec. 21 in Dryden.
