Senior hoopsters still unbeaten

Rebecca Cornell may not have her licence yet, but she was driving her former housemate and teammate to distraction.
“She told me in the second half, ‘I’m going to foul out right now, I’ve had enough,’” recounted the first-year guard for the Muskie senior girls’ basketball team about Dryden Eagles’ ace shooter Brittany Kamm during yesterday’s 49-39 win by the black-and-gold here to improve to 3-0.
“I think she was just frustrated with her teammates. But I knew she and the Eagles were finished at that point,” Cornell added.
Cornell’s family billeted Kamm this past spring when the two players were part of the Fort Frances regional girls’ team that played in the Manitoba championships.
But although Kamm netted a team-high 16 points for the game while playing with foul trouble, practically all of them had to be earned with Cornell in her shirt collar the whole way.
The redheaded Devlin defender also took care of business on the offensive end of the floor, chalking up a season-high 12 points to trail only Carley McCormick’s game high 23 points while also raking in a handful of steals.
“I wasn’t very good the first two games, but I guess it took a couple to get me warmed up,” said Cornell. “We started out pretty rough today, but we had some of our best moments of the year so far, too.”
Muskie head coach Mike Busch announced before the game that first-year forward Danielle O’Sullivan had left the team to concentrate on academic and other commitments.
O’Sullivan had seen limited playing time in the team’s first two games. Busch said there are no roster additions planned to fill the vacancy.
< *c>Narrowing the gap
In junior action, it was another loss in the record books but another step forward in the steady development of a Muskie team that dropped a 32-27 decision to the visiting Eagles.
“I’m so proud of them. I could just see watching them the amazing improvement they were making,” said junior head coach Michelle Mosbeck.
“Our young players are starting to shoot more, and players like Jessica Woodgate, Alyssa Holliday, and Blaire Harnett made some solid offensive contributions today.”
The Muskies (0-3) actually held a 17-16 lead at halftime and increased it to 21-16 midway through the third quarter. But an 8-0 Eagles’ run put Dryden ahead to stay and Fort High went cold from the floor in the fourth—scoring only two points.
Veterans Katie McTavish and Janelle Williamson shared the team lead with six points apiece while Brittany Bembenek had nine to pace the Eagles.
“Our Grade 9 players are starting to click, but when we got that lead in the third, everyone seemed to slip a notch,” said Williamson. “But with practice, that first win is just around the corner, no doubt.”
“We’re still trying to get used to each other,” McTavish added about a squad with just three returning players. “But we can definitely see that we’re getting better every game.”
Both hoop squads resume NorWOSSA action tomorrow (Thursday) in Kenora. The seniors then will head to Thunder Bay this weekend for a tournament at Lakehead University.