Muskie hoopsters finish third here

The best lessons often are those learned through hardship.
The Muskie senior girls’ basketball team certainly learned several important ones over the weekend at the Fort Frances High School/Taggs Source for Sports senior girls’ invitational tournament.
The black-and-gold finished with a 2-1 record en route to earning third-place honours.
But while both of the team’s wins were impressive, the most important of their three games—in terms of development—may well have been that which they lost to the Churchill Trojans (Thunder Bay).
The home side struggled mightily to score baskets against a very tall, very athletic Trojan squad in the first half of their semi-final match-up Friday night.
Churchill’s superior height and shot-blocking ability forced the Muskies to take low percentage shots from the perimeter in the offensive zone. At the other end, the Trojans passed the ball well—working it deep into the post for easy lay-ups.
As the buzzer sounded for halftime, the black-and-gold found themselves down 16-4 in front of the home-town faithful.
“We were a little tentative in the first half,” Muskie coach Ian Simpson commented at practice Monday afternoon.
“We had some good shots but they didn’t drop and we were held to a very low score.”
During the break, Simpson and co-head coach Marla Knutsen told the team to keep working on the defensive end and the offensive chances would come.
The Muskies took the message to heart—ramping up their defensive intensity in the third quarter. Their aggressive defensive play forced several Trojan turnovers which, in turn, resulted in fast-break opportunities.
The Trojans’ height advantage, which had caused so many headaches for the Muskies in the first half, effectively was negated as the home side ran up and down the court.
The Muskies quadrupled their point total from the first half. And though they were unable to complete the comeback (eventually losing the game 28-20), they did outscore the Trojans 16-12 in the second half.
“I think we just moved the ball at a faster pace,” guard Emily Haggberg said of the team’s reversal of fortunes at the offensive end during the second half against Churchill.
“We were more open to get a good shot.”
Forward Alyssa Holliday agreed.
“We have really fast people on our team and they’re getting down the court and we’re seeing opportunities to get baskets, which is good,” she remarked.
The positive momentum gained during the second half against the Trojans then carried over to the consolation final against the Westgate Tigers (Thunder Bay) on Saturday morning.
Both teams were extremely familiar with one another—having faced each other in an exhibition match less than 24 hours earlier (a game the Muskies won 27-24).
The exhibition game was the result of a last-minute change to the tournament schedule.
The black-and-gold originally had been slated to face St. Thomas Aquinas (Kenora) in a quarter-final match-up, but the game was cancelled when the visitors withdrew due to transportation issues.
In the re-match with the Tigers, the Muskies once again played aggressive defence—forcing Westgate turnovers and generating fast-break opportunities.
And the tactics proved fruitful as the senior hoopsters controlled play en route to a 32-22 victory.
“I felt we did well,” Simpson said of the consolation final.
“We’d been struggling offensively but we started to put things together and we played a much better game against Westgate than we had previously this year.
“{We] turned defensive steals into good offensive opportunities and by the end of the game, we were making the lay-ups and taking advantage of them,” he added.
“Good teams manage to turn good defensive plays into baskets and I think we’re starting to do that,” Simpson stressed.
In addition to the team’s improvement at the offensive end, the Muskie coaches were excited by a couple of break-out individual performances.
Centre Michelle Cournoyer undoubtedly was the team’s most consistent player throughout the tournament. She provided an inside scoring threat at the offensive end while shining defensively—blocking numerous shots.
“Michelle Cournoyer came into her own defensively this weekend,” Simpson said. “I think she was probably the dominant shot-blocker out of every team in the tournament.
“She made a lot of players alter their shots just because she was there and if they didn’t change their shot, then she was able to block it,” he added.
Haggberg, meanwhile, provided the perfect complement to Cournoyer’s interior defence—prowling the perimeter and stepping into passing lanes to disrupt the opposition’s ball movement.
“Emily Haggberg is very fast, very strong, and very athletic,” Simpson noted. “She was able to make a lot of good defensive plays and turn them into good offensive opportunities.”
Buoyed by the discovery of their offensive identity, the Muskies are hoping their strong play will carry over into NorWOSSA play—and translate into a strong post-season run beginning Nov. 10 at Beaver Brae High School in Kenora.