Muskies place third at own tourney

The Muskie senior girls’ basketball team beat the Westfort Tigers (Thunder Bay) 32-22 here Saturday morning to capture third place at their home tournament.
Alyssa Holliday paced the offensive attack with 12 points.
The win was a positive ending to what could best be described as an up-and-down weekend.
The black-and-gold was given an automatic berth into the semi-finals after the St. Thomas Aquinas Saints (Kenora) withdrew from the tournament at the last minute due to transportation issues.
In place of their scheduled quarter-final, the Muskies played the Tigers in an exhibition game.
The black-and-gold were solid defensively—led by forward Michelle Cournoyer in the paint and guard Emily Haggberg on the perimeter—en route to the 27-24 victory.
The score would have favoured the Muskies even more had the Tigers not hit a three-point basket as the buzzer sounded to end the game.
Next up for the Muskies were the Churchill Trojans in the tournament’s first semi-final match-up Friday evening.
The Trojans dominated play in the paint—thanks largely to a very tall front line that featured three players each standing more than six feet tall.
The smaller Muskies could not stop the Trojans from imposing their will around the basket and found themselves on the losing end of a 28-20 score.
The scoreboard would have been even more lopsided in Churchill’s favour had the black-and-gold not scored the final six points of the game to cut the deficit to single digits.
The lone bright side for the Muskies in the loss was the standout play of Cournoyer.
The Muskie forward more than held her own against a very skilled Trojan front-line, blocking numerous shots and leading the black-and-gold in scoring with eight points.
The Trojans went on to win the tournament by downing the Dryden Eagles 37-30 in the final Saturday afternoon.
The senior girls return to NorWOSSA action tomorrow afternoon (Oct. 24) when they host the Kenora Broncos.
Tip-off is scheduled for 5 p.m.