Muskies struggle on basketball court

After recording two straight wins to open the NorWOSSA season, the Muskie senior girls’ basketball team seemed to be headed in the right direction.
But that direction has taken an abrupt turn for the worst as the black-and-gold dropped their third-straight league game yesterday afternoon, this time a 56-38 in Dryden.
The Muskies are now tied for a second place tie with the Eagles at 2-3. Kenora, fresh off a tournament win in Thunder Bay last weekend, sits atop the standings with just one loss (a 56-51 decision to Fort to open the season).
Muskie co-coach Kent Kowalski said it was a tough, physical game yesterday with both teams battling early foul trouble.
In fact, 53 fouls were called in the game, with the Muskies earning 28 of those.
“Our starters had two or three [fouls] right off the bat and we had to take them out. So I think our girls got frustrated and it became psychological where they looked around and said ‘Now who’s going to score,'” said Kowalski.
Dryden jumped out to a big 33-15 halftime lead but the Muskies managed to close the gap to within nine in the third.
Kowalski said Dryden played a tough man-to-man defence, which bottled up the Muskies at times, but added his team was able to score some “easy baskets” when the Eagles over committed on the Muskie ball carrier.
“We worked our offence well, and we got a lot of points off the fast break, too,” he added.
Karen Harris led the Muskies with 10 points while Hannah Carter added eight.
In junior girls’ action, the Muskies dropped a tight 36-33 decision to the Eagles in what head coach Brenda Pressenger called a “very tight” defensive game.
The Muskies did outscore Dryden 19-10 in the fourth quarter but came up just short.
Kelly Crawford netted 11 points for the black-and-gold while Sarah Noonan added eight.
Meanwhile, the Muskie senior boys’ volleyball team lost two of three games to Dryden. After opening with a 15-10 loss, the Fort battled back to win the second game 15-9 before then lost the third one 15-10.
But the junior boys’ came through with a sweep of their match against the Eagles, winning by scores of 15-12, 15-11 and 15-12.