Senior hoopsters finish second at home tournament

The Muskie senior boys’ basketball came up one game short at the La Place Rendez-Vous Invitational tournament here over the weekend.
The Churchill Trojans (Thunder Bay) proved too much for the black-and-gold in the tourney final Saturday, outscoring the home side 28-14 in the second quarter en route to a 64-46 victory.
“Basically what it came down to was we were ahead after the first quarter 17-16 and we need to play four quarters like that, not just one,” Muskie head coach Paul Noonan said.
“We have to work on our conditioning and our defensive skills, and hopefully by season’s end when we have an opportunity—if we get through NorWOSSA—to meet them again, we’ll be ready for them,” he added.
Saturday’s final marked the second time in just over two weeks that the Muskies have faced the Trojans in tournament play—the first coming at the “Tiger Tip-Off” in Thunder Bay on the first weekend of December.
But while the results were similar (with the Muskies suffering double-digit defeats in both contests), Noonan saw improvements in his team’s play.
“We were concentrating on their two big men who really lit us up in the first encounter we had with them,” he noted.
“They had 22 and 23 points, respectively, in the first encounter and this time we held them to eight and 13 [points respectively]. So that worked.
“However, they’ve got a guard who last time didn’t do much against us but, in this particular tournament, he scored 23 points against us—so that hurt,” Noonan added.
Jeremy Strain led the Muskies in the final with 12 points.
Despite the loss to Churchill, Noonan was pleased with his team’s overall performance. “I thought we had a good tournament,” he remarked.
The black-and-gold got off to a strong start Friday, earning a hard-fought 54-52 win over the Queen Elizabeth Warriors (Sioux Lookout).
The Muskies trailed 14-13 after one quarter of play, but pulled away in the second thanks in large part to Strain’s 13-point offensive outburst.
As the halftime buzzer sounded, the Muskies held a comfortable 34-21 lead.
But the Warriors got themselves back in the game in the third quarter courtesy of a strong defensive effort.
Sioux Lookout limited the Muskie offence to just three points, while scoring 19 points of their own, to lead 40-37 heading into the final quarter.
With the game hanging in the balance, Joey Theriault stepped up his play, scoring six of the Muskies’ 16 fourth-quarter points en route to the come-from-behind victory.
“It was a good test for us,” Noonan said afterwards. “It was one of those games you like to see come along every once in a while because it allows you to test your skills at the end of the game when it’s very close.
“We maintained control of the basketball and ended up coming out ahead on the scoreboard.”
Strain led the way with 19 points while Scott Gurski and Morgan Anderson each added 10.
The Muskies then dominated the Dryden Eagles 41-27 later Friday in the semi-finals.
“We were able to play everyone,” Noonan said. “Everyone got a chance to play.”
Theriault and Travis Stromness paced the attack with eight points apiece.
In related news, the black-and-gold remain undefeated in NorWOSSA play (2-0) after trouncing the Eagles 65-37 in Dryden last Thursday.
The Muskies played solid defence—holding the Eagles to just nine points in the first half—while using their transition offence to good effect to build a comfortable lead.
The lead allowed the Muskies to go deep into their bench during the second half. But while the players were different, the results were the same as the black-and-gold cruised to the easy win.
Boyd Badiuk’s 15 points paced the team to victory.
The squad resumes NorWOSSA action here tomorrow (Dec. 14) in a re-match with those same Eagles. Tip-off is scheduled for 5 p.m.