Junior hoopsters take fourth at KIT

The Muskie junior boys’ basketball team finished fourth at the junior Kenora Invitational Tournament over the weekend.
Afterwards, head coach Gord McCabe had mixed feelings concerning his team’s performance.
On the one hand, he was pleased with his team’s continued progress this season and has been encouraged by the emergence of several individual players.
“We are definitely continuing to improve overall, but so are Dryden and Kenora,” McCabe said. “Aaron Oakes has developed into a solid back-up to Kurt Hill and is maybe our most improved player.
“Evan McCabe had the breakout game against St. Pat’s that I have been expecting he might have.”
On the other hand, there remain some aspects of the team’s game—namely consistency and grit—that continue to trouble the Muskie coach.
“We are still very inconsistent and you never know which players are going to be ready on any given day,” McCabe remarked.
“We are also not nearly physical enough when rebounding and are far too ‘nice’ when it comes to the one-on-one battles for the ball,” he stressed.
The Muskies opened the tournament against the St. Thomas Aquinas Saints (Kenora) and promptly got off to an inauspicious start—trailing 13-0 after only five minutes of play.
“We started the tournament by playing our worst stretch of basketball since our very first game [of the season] against Beaver Brae,” Gord McCabe said.
But the insertion of guard Eli Boshkaykin into the line-up gave the Muskies a spark. He scored all eight of his points in the second quarter as the Muskies cut the deficit to 26-23 at halftime.
The Muskies the rebounded in the second half and dominated the Saints en route to an easy 52-29 win.
“We totally shut down the Saints in the second half as they only scored one field goal,” Gord McCabe said.
Kurt Hill led the Muskies in scoring with 17 points while Kyle Hill had nine.
That win put the Muskies into the ‘A’ division semi-finals, where they faced the Kildonan East Collegiate Reivers.
Fort High jumped out to an early 10-6 lead, but the Reivers clawed their way back into the game courtesy of an aggressive full-court press and held a 26-23 lead at the break.
The Reivers’ big men took control of the game in the third quarter and, despite a late comeback attempt by the Muskies, held on for a 52-42 win.
Justin Bujold had nine points to lead the Muskie attack.
“Kildonan had defeated a very good Thunder Bay Churchill in their first game of the tournament, which probably matched the two best teams, and they were easily the quickest and most athletic team we had played all year,” McCabe said.
The loss to Kildonan East set up a showdown between the Muskies and St. Patrick Saints (Thunder Bay) in the consolation final.
The Saints took a slim first-quarter lead (11-10) but the Muskies stormed back and led 24-20 at the half.
The game remained a tightly-contested affair in the second half, with the score being tied 33-33 after three quarters of play.
In the final quarter, the Muskies outscored the Saints from the field but St. Patrick’s went eight of nine from the free-throw line to pull out the 46-43 victory.
The consolation final was a “Battle of the Evans” as St. Pat’s star player, Evan Wilson, proved almost unstoppable—scoring 26 of their 46 points.
Meanwhile, Evan McCabe had his best game as a Muskie, and nearly matched Wilson’s performance, scoring 22 points while creating numerous turnovers.
Kurt Hill chipped in 10 points for the Muskies against St. Pat’s.