Joey Payeur
Junior squad
still looking
for first win
Offence, defence, hustle.
The Muskie senior boys’ basketball team scored high in all three categories in a 59-30 rout of the Dryden Eagles in NorWOSSA action there last Thursday.
“Everything pretty much went according to plan,” said Muskie head coach Paul Noonan, whose squad solidified its hold on first place at 3-0.
“We’re not getting a lot of competition from Kenora and Dryden, but we’re looking forward to the tournaments coming up,” he noted.
“They should be more of a challenge for us.”
Noonan’s team has been dominant so far in NorWOSSA play—and continued that theme in Dryden.
Justin Anderson led the rout with 20 points. Caleb McIntosh added 19 while Harley Mainville chipped in 11.
Noonan said motivation to continue to push hard during league games needs to come from the players’ desire to continually hone their talents.
“We try and work on different aspects of the game; run our offences and defences that we work on in practice,” he explained.
“It’s nice we can stay fresh by being able to get everyone out on the floor during these games, and that we’re not just relying on five, six, or seven guys,” he added.
But Noonan believes the Muskies need to buckle down when it comes to their offensive production against higher-quality teams.
“Before Christmas against International Falls, we only scored 17 points in the first half,” he recalled.
“In the second half, we played them even, 30-30, but we couldn’t climb out of the hole.
“I really want these guys to attack the basket more,” Noonan stressed. “They want to float out to the perimeter more often than not.”
Fort High took down the host Eagles last Thursday despite the absence of swingman Josh Strain (ankle) and guard Jacob Hawley (concussion).
Strain was expected to see limited action yesterday in the Muskies’ home game against the Kenora Broncos (the outcome was unknown by press time) but Hawley is expected to miss another one-two weeks.
Noonan, meanwhile, will get to see his team’s tournament mentality on display this weekend when they travel to Thunder Bay for the St. Ignatius Falcons Invitational.
The Muskies, who have a first-round bye, will play their first game Friday at 4 p.m. against the winner of the all-Thunder Bay match-up between the Hammarskjold Trojans and Westgate Tigers.
Still learning
It’s been a different story so far for the Muskie junior boys basketball squad, which continued to be enrolled in the school of hard-court knocks as they fell to 0-3 for the season with a 40-21 loss in Dryden last Thursday (the top scorers were unavailable by press time).
“Defensively, we were pretty undersized,” said Fort High assistant coach Jeff Vandahl, who guided the team in the absence of head coach Greg Ste. Croix.
“But I saw a lot of effort out there—the best I’ve seen all year so far.
“Offensively, we just have to gel a little bit more,” Vandahl noted. “We’re doing the little things well and we’re getting closer game by game.”
The Muskies stayed close to the Eagles during the first quarter, but Dryden chipped away at the black-and-gold’s defence and gradually pulled away as the game wore on.
“The game was closer than the score indicated,” said Vandahl. “We had a lot of good shots and if a few more had fallen, it would have been a lot closer.
“Dryden’s execution was just a lot cleaner, a lot crisper, than ours was,” he admitted.
“But we didn’t give up too many easy baskets.”
The juniors also were in action here yesterday against Kenora (again, the outcome wasn’t known by press time).
