Dan Falloon
Even after running through the NorWOSSA regular season with a 7-1 record, the Muskie senior boys’ basketball team has a chip on its shoulder.
The black-and-gold hasn’t forgotten its lone loss of the campaign, when the Muskies fell 49-41 to Kenora on Feb. 4 in their first game back from the exam break.
Even though the Muskies bounced back with a 49-46 win last Thursday (Feb. 11) in Kenora, they still feel they have a point to prove in the NorWOSSA playoffs in Dryden this Friday (Feb. 19).
“The biggest thing is going to be our focus,” noted head coach Kevin Gemmell. “The first game we lost, it really made the kids realize that they really need to focus on their game and not take anything for granted.
“I think if the focus is there, we’re going to have a good chance to win.
“We’re just going to have to do the little things like boxing out, sharing the ball, and just focus on the little things, and everything else will fall into place,” he added.
Kenora will meet the host Eagles earlier Friday to determine the other finalist. And even though a match-up with the Eagles would seem to be the easy route, Gemmell insisted his squad wants to line up against the Broncos to truly earn NorWOSSA supremacy.
“I don’t think our kids really want to play Dryden,” he remarked. “They want to play Kenora because they’ve got some unfinished business with them.
“I would imagine Kenora would win [over Dryden].”
Gemmell sees his team’s bye to the final as a decided advantage as the Muskies await the winner while Kenora and Dryden wear each other down.
“I think we have more skill than any of the other NorWOSSA teams, and Kenora is going to have to play two games, where we’re only going to have to play one, so that’s a great advantage for us,” he noted.
In the Muskies’ two latest games against Kenora, Gemmell couldn’t point to any specific strategies the Broncos employed in the much closer games, instead feeling that Kenora had improved in all areas as the season wore on.
“I don’t think it was necessarily what they were doing. They’ve just gotten a lot better,” he said. “They play good defence, and they understand who our scorers are, and I think they really focus to try to shut down those guys, like Justin [Anderson] and Josh [Strain].
“I really couldn’t put down one thing that they’re doing better. I think it’s just the combination of doing a lot of things better than they were at the start of the season.”
Gemmell, meanwhile, is instilling the attitude that his team should prepare for both outcomes, but to not get too caught up in what to expect from the opponent.
“I’m trying to tell these kids, don’t have expectations,” he stressed. “Just go out there and play your game, and things will fall into place.
“We’re going to expect that they’re going to bring their best game and we’re going to bring ours,” Gemmell reasoned.
