Muskies win men’s basketball league crown

The Muskies overcame an eight-point deficit in the third quarter Monday night to pull out an 81-71 victory over Tagg’s in the championship game of the four-team men’s basketball league here.
The black-and-gold elected to go to a more pressing style of defence in the second half, which forced several Tagg’s turnovers and led to the turnaround.
John Sivonen and Evan Woodlands led the Muskies offensively, each draining some shots from three-point land (no individual scoring stats were kept).
Jamie Algie grabbed several key rebounds off the boards while Doug LaBelle also was a force.
Tagg’s had led 41-36 at halftime, keyed by the strong play of John Laplante, a former Lakehead player.
The Muskies opened up a 28-18 lead midway the first half, taking the ball aggressively to the hoop, before Tagg’s fought back to trail by just 30-29 late in the half.
Then they closed out the half by going on a 12-6 run.
Meanwhile, Rendez-Vous cruised to a solid 75-57 win over Triple A in the consolation final earlier Monday evening.
Leading just 40-39 at the half, the Rendez-Vous broke the game open by playing a stifling defence that held Triple A to only 18 second-half points.
Toby Munro poured in a game-high 26 points for the winners while Paul Noonan added 19. Dennis Mounk netted 15 for Triple A, with Terry LaBelle adding 14.
The first-year league was a success, said Noonan, who helped jumpstart the idea of the one-game-a-week schedule each Monday night at the high school gym.
“I thought it went very well for the first year and with the first-rate facility we had,” he noted yesterday. “I don’t think we had a default game all year and it was nice to have the scoreboard and the two refs.”
Each team paid an entry fee of $300, which went towards covering the costs of officials and time keepers.
Noonan said the league would be open to expansion next year but added they’d like to add two teams instead of one in order to keep the number even.
He said any new teams most likely would come from the U.S. side.
“We probably wouldn’t expand locally,” said Noonan, adding he already has discussed the possibility of playing an interlocking schedule.