Muskie girls earn easy win over Owls

It was a warm-up game for the locals, but they barely broke a sweat.
The Muskie senior girls’ basketball squad tuned up for its annual home tournament this weekend by whipping the Rainy River Owls 43-13 in exhibition action at the “Fish Tank” (Fort High gym) yesterday afternoon.
Stephanie Mattson spurred the Muskies’ offence with a team-high 10 points, including two three-pointers, while Andrea Boileau and Tricia Smith added six each.
“The press worked really well for us today,” Boileau said about the Muskies’ up-tempo defence which pressured the Owls into a slew of turnovers.
“They didn’t know how to handle it.
“We switched to man-to-man defence after we got a big lead, although we just learned it two days ago, and we don’t like it very much,” she added. “There’s too much scrambling around and it’s unorganized.”
But that particular defensive style is something Boileau knows will come in handy today and tomorrow against quicker and more effective passing teams than the Owls.
“Some of the teams coming to the tournament will be playing man-to-man,” she predicted.
“I think we’ve got a fairly good chance to do well in this tournament, even with the Thunder Bay teams [St. Ignatius Falcons and St. Patrick Saints] who will be tougher.
“They’re nothing we can’t handle.”
Alicia Giles had six points to lead the Owls, who trailed only 16-10 at halftime but then came unglued and managed only one field goal after the break.
The Muskies opened tournament action today at 2 p.m. against the Falcons, before Saturday match-ups against St. Thomas Aquinas from Kenora (9 a.m.) and St. Patrick (5:30 p.m.)
Meanwhile, in Muskie volleyball action here yesterday, both the senior and junior boys’ teams roughed up their Rainy River counterparts by similar 3-1 margins.
The seniors won by scores of 25-21, 25-13, 23-25, and 25-22. Individual scores for the juniors’ match were unavailable.