Mitch Calvert
Both Muskie girls’ basketball teams got their NorWOSSA seasons off on the right foot yesterday with wins in Dryden.
Kayla Windigo led the charge with nine points as the seniors beat the host Eagles 25-19.
Jolene Stahn added eight points for the black-and-gold while Melissa Felske was the high scorer for the Eagles with nine.
“We have to learn how to look after the basketball a bit better,” Muskie co-coach Ian Simpson enthused.
“But other than that, when we needed the girls to step up, they really did a good job for us.
“I’m pleased with the effort.”
The Muskie juniors, meanwhile, survived a late charge by the Eagles to hold on for a 30-26 victory.
“We were up by 11 and I put in the bench, and they came back at us with their starters,” junior coach Dan Bird noted.
“But we put our starters back in and held them off,” he added.
Erika Moffitt led the Muskies with nine points. Chelsea Audette added six while Chantal Jodoin netted five.
The senior girls’ basketball squad got a jump-start on the regular season by claiming the consolation title at the Lakehead Thunderwolves Pizza Hut tournament in Thunder Bay on Saturday.
The black-and-gold had opened with a 40-21 thrashing of Superior High School.
“The girls played really good defence. They pressed and wore the other team down,” Simpson said.
“Defensively, it was a great effort,” he added.
The Muskies then suffered a hard-fought 30-24 loss to the St. Ignatius Falcons in their next game.
The Hammarskjold Vikings took gold with a 47-23 victory over the Falcons in the final.
Fort High rounded out the tournament with a 38-32 win over their NorWOSSA rivals, the Kenora Broncos, in the consolation final.
“One of my goals as a coach is to try to hold the other team to 30 points and no more, and the defence played well all weekend,” Simpson noted.
But while defending their basket has been a strength of the Muskie senior program for several seasons, scoring baskets at the other end might be considered the team’s Achilles heel.
“We do have to work on our offence,” Simpson admitted. “We’ve got to work on our foul shooting, but it’s early in the year for the offence to be clicking.
“We missed a few lay-ups under pressure, and again it’s early in the year, but we just need to focus on finishing and making sure we’re putting it in when we have opportunities.
“And I think that will come.”
The squad has two large voids to fill left by departed seniors Lauren Gurski and Taylor Meyers, but Simpson pointed to strong showings from returning veterans Windigo, Stahn, and Sian Donald on the weekend as potentially replacing some of that lost scoring.
“We have one returning starter from last year so we’re a young team, but there’s lots of balance and all the kids got to play,” Simpson noted.
“We had some good efforts from everybody and it bodes well for the future.
“It was definitely a positive weekend for us and gives me hope that we have the potential to do quite well,” he added.
Simpson also lauded the efforts of Grade 11 rookies Sara Roach and Chelsea Hill.
“They are used to playing junior, and the senior game is a little faster and the kids are a little stronger,” he remarked. “But when they make that adjustment, they are going to be good players.
“You could see them making the adjustment over the three games.”
The Muskie seniors finished last year’s regular season with a 5-3 record, second only to the 7-1 Dryden Eagles.
The squad nearly pulled off the upset in the NorWOSSA final, rallying to tie the score with 40 seconds left—only to have Meyers and Stahn foul out and open the door for the Eagles to break free in the final seconds to win 48-40.
Simpson said his squad will be gunning for the Eagles after they swept both the senior and junior girls’ basketball crowns a year ago.
“Dryden’s probably the team to beat,” he noted.
“We’ll have to work hard and see what we can do over the course the year.”
Meanwhile, the Muskie junior girls’ basketball team is coming off a similarly successful season a year ago.
They finished the year at 5-3, second to the 6-2 Dryden Eagles, and battled the Eagles right down to the wire in the NorWOSSA final before falling 35-34.
The Muskies split their four regular-season meetings with the Eagles last season.
Despite losing Hill, Roach, Morgan Krueger, Hailey Swire, Jen McDowell, Shayanne Holden, Natasha Bragg, and Tina Pham, the team boasts returnees Moffitt, Jodoin, Audette, Mary Strain, Alyssa Caul, and Emily Drouin and nine rookies.
“We’ve got some good rookies,” Bird stressed. “We’ve got a solid bench and they’ve just have to get used to some floor time.
“But I suspect at least five of those rookies to be solid and have no problem jumping in.”
