Jamie Mountain
They may have taken their fair share of lumps early on in the season, but the Rainy River Owls’ junior and senior boys’ basketball teams don’t plan on feeling sorry for themselves.
Both squads were handed lopsided losses by the visiting St. Thomas Aquinas Saints (Kenora) last Monday in their NorWOSSA ‘A’ regular-season openers at RRHS.
The juniors were dealt a decisive 68-30 setback by the Saints, who coach Tyson Grinsell said were very strong.
“T.A. has a very strong team this year and has already attended tournaments in Winnipeg, which they won, and that was our very first game,” he noted.
“There were a lot of things that we could have done better, but at the same time we had to play a really strong team with way more experience than us.
“We’ve been going over all of the elements of our game in practice, so hopefully we can improve during our next game,” Grinsell added, who is also coaching the senior girls’ volleyball team this season.
Caleb Jack-Gibbins and Mike Vogan were the leading scorers for the Owls in their opening loss to the Saints and are part of small roster for Rainy River this year.
The other members of the squad are Tyson Maki, Ryder Sinninghe, Ronan Ivall, Elgin Gibbins, Ashton Skead-Jack and Nick Tiboni.
Despite the smaller numbers, Grinsell is hopeful his team can battle hard and qualify for the playoffs.
“The goal is always to try to compete with everyone and try to make playoffs,” he stressed.
“We’ll keep working on our offence and defence and hopefully we can continue to improve.”
The Owls were originally supposed to host the Ignace Falcons last Wednesday, but that game has been pushed to February due to the one-day OSSTF strike that took place across the province.
The Atikokan Voyageurs don’t have a junior boys’ basketball team this season, meaning the Owl juniors didn’t play yesterday and their only game before Christmas was the loss to the Saints last Monday.
“It’s unfortunate that we have had to reschedule games and, as a result, our only game before Christmas will be the loss to T.A.,” Grinsell lamented.
“Atikokan doesn’t have a junior boys’ team, so we won’t be playing on that day. We’re looking forward to trying to schedule some exhibition games with Baudette or Fort Frances in the future.”
As for the Owl seniors, they saw their record fall to 0-2 with a lopsided 51-11 loss to Atikokan yesterday morning at RRHS.
The Owls managed to hold the Voyageurs to just 28 points in the first half, but their inability to make shots throughout the game proved to be their downfall.
“We’re gonna be working on contested shooting,” said Owls’ coach Rebecca Tolen after yesterday’s game.
“We need to get better on that. In practice and warm-ups and at halftime we can sink them from all over, but the minute they have a little bit of pressure we miss them by a mile.
“Our defence was not bad,” she added. “We held them to 28 points the first half, that’s not a bad score. They did really good against a much taller team.”
Rainy River had opened the season getting thumped by a 76-25 count by the visiting saints in their opening game last Monday at RRHS.
Hayden Haw scored a team-high seven points for the Owls while Carter St. Pierre chipped in with six.
“We have a very short bench and that was our first game of the season due to reschedules, I knew that game would be tough,” admitted Tolen.
“It was not a great game for us, we missed about 30 shots that should have gone down. We forgot to work together.
“It was frustrating,” she lamented. “In the end, we decided to have some fun and we played better.
“While the score didn’t reflect well, our best quarter was the first quarter. If only we could have put a few more through the rim instead of bouncing it off the rim,” she added.
The rest of the Owls’ roster is comprised of Brendan Wilson, Walid Quran, William Low, Josh Indian, Carlin Drennan and Liam Pearson.
Tolen is expecting that her squad can make the playoffs this season and rebound quickly from their opening loss to the Saints.
“Our strengths are that we love basketball, want to play and are willing to work hard,” she lauded.
“We want to make [the] playoffs, so we have some work in front of us.
“We haven’t had a lot of gym time, so I am hoping they remember the stuff we worked on in practice and work as a team for a better result.”
The senior squad will resume NorWOSSA play on Tuesday, Jan. 14 when it heads to Atikokan to take on the Voyageurs.
The juniors won’t see action again until Wednesday, Jan. 15 in Ignace against the Falcons.
