Lucas Punkari
After dropping their opening games of the NorWOSSA regular season last Thursday afternoon in Dryden, the Muskie senior and junior girls’ basketball teams were hoping to use weekend tournaments there to get on the right track.
The black-and-gold did that—and then some—as both teams swept aside their opponents to finish with perfect 3-0 records.
The senior girls’ wins all occurred in overtime as they edged Westgate, Rainy River, and St. Thomas Aquinas.
“Before the tournament, we talked about what we did right in our loss to Dryden in the regular season and what we needed to do in order to win,” explained head coach Dan Bird.
“The biggest things about the weekend was that we learned how to play in overtime and what takes to come out on top, and obviously we were successful in that,” he noted.
“In our tournaments in Dryden and Thunder Bay, along with our league game in Dryden, we’ve been wanting to be consistent in both our offensive and defensive play for all four quarters, and we are going to keep working towards doing that,” Bird stressed.
In their regular-season opener last Thursday, the seniors held a 17-12 lead in the third quarter before the Eagles came roaring back with 18 points in the final quarter to take a 30-25 victory.
“In those final minutes, Dryden put the ball in their best player’s [Morgan Church] hands and she sunk four three-pointers in a row to put them up,” Bird recalled.
“We had our chances to go back ahead late, but we turned the ball over . . . and they ended up pulling ahead for good.”
As for the junior girls, they had one tight triumph against Westgate in tournament play in Dryden, along with two blowout victories over Superior and St. Thomas Aquinas.
“Our offence really came together during the entire tournament,” junior head coach Marla Knutsen noted.
“They knew where they needed to be out on the floor, and also made some really good give-and-go plays to help us on our way,” she added.
Their regular-season opener against Dryden last Thursday went right down to the wire before the hosts drained a shot in the final minute to eke out a 38-37 win.
“We started off really strong and we had a really good lead in the first quarter, but then Dryden really started to put the pressure on,” Knutsen recalled.
“In the end, we only lost by one point and I thought we played the whole game really well, so I was really proud of them for what they did in only their first game.”
After both teams welcomed Kenora to the Fort High gym in NorWOSSA play yesterday, they will spend the next few days preparing for a pair of league games next week.
They will travel back up to Dryden on Tuesday before hosting Kenora again next Thursday (Oct. 6).
“I really think this is going to be a real competitive three-horse league here,” Bird enthused.
“I don’t think there’s going to be nothing to take for granted as we are going to be fighting in every game, and I think we will be evenly-matched with Kenora and Dryden.”
Over in the junior camp, Knutsen will be working with her squad to try and fine-tune a few things before they get deeper into the campaign.
“We’ll be working on proper positioning, helping each other in situations, and things like that,” she said.
“We might possibly work on our offence against the zone defence, as well.
“And even though no one has showed us a zone yet, we need to be prepared in case they do,” Knutsen stressed.