Joey Payeur
It wasn’t anything an opposing coach really wants to see.
But Dan Bird also knew it was a golden opportunity for his team—one on which, as it turned out, they could not capitalize.
The Hammarskjold Vikings overcame the loss of their top player, centre Aliisa Heiskanen, early in Game 1 to sweep Bird’s Muskies senior girls basketball team 2-0 in the best-of-three NWOSSAA championship on the Vikings’ home floor.
Hammarskjold held on for a 24-23 win in Game 1 on Friday, then sunk a game-tying free throw with two seconds left before eventually winning 27-21 in overtime in Game 2 on Saturday to qualify for the OFSAA provincial ‘AA’ championships in Kingsville, running tomorrow through Saturday.
Heiskanen, who burned the Fort for a total of 43 points in two blowout wins for the Vikings in last year’s NWOSSAA clash, sprained her knee in the first quarter Friday trying to step through a black-and-gold double team.
“(Heiskanen) will take advantage of any offence they run when she’s out there,” said Bird about Heiskanen, who tried to give it a go after halftime but had to pull the plug for the rest of the series with the knee too painful to play with.
“I told my players as soon as she gets the ball in the key, double up and play one behind the other with one foot of each person crossing,” continued the coach.
“(Heiskanen) got caught up in the feet and tripped and went down awkwardly.”
Without their star scorer, who had 36 of their 54 points in the Superior Secondary Schools Athletic Association final against the St. Ignatius Falcons, Hammarskjold had to adjust its offence on the fly.
They managed to do so efficiently enough to go on a 10-0 run after the Fort grabbed an early 4-0 lead.
From there, the Muskies clawed their way back to within range—closer than they even realized, as it turned out, except for one sharp-eyed rookie Fort player.
Grade 11 centre Amber Williams observed what she believed was an incorrect addition of two points to the Vikings’ side of the scoreboard that actually belonged to the Fort.
“We thought we were short two points and got the referee to check with three minutes left and he said everything was alright,” recounted Bird.
“So, with a minute left, we’re down by five on the scoreboard and we’re trying to get Sierra Cousineau clear to shoot a three-pointer, but she missed three of them because we rushed things and didn’t work their defence enough.”
The Muskies ended up stealing the ball with under 20 seconds to play and scoring to pull within what they thought was three points of the lead.
With six seconds left, Fort Frances got the ball back, but couldn’t get a good shot off near the basket as the buzzer sounded.
After the game, a closer inspection of the scoresheet proved Williams right as it showed the scoreboard operator’s error, with the Muskies actually having trailed by only three entering the final minute.
“Definitely, we would have strategized differently and probably tried to work the ball into Amber instead of trying for the three,” reasoned Bird in reference to Williams, who led the team in scoring both games.
Bird acknowledged that his team didn’t do itself any favours in Game 1 with its undisciplined shot selection.
“We were not patient enough to run the plays that we had practiced,” he said.
“We were just freewheeling out there and were taking shots that were landing a foot, two feet short of the hoop.”
In Game 2, with a renewed focus on offensive execution, the Muskies were able to grab a one-point lead and hold it into the final minute.
“I called timeout and told them to make sure when we had the ball to let them foul us, but when they had it to not commit fouls,” noted Bird.
With nine seconds left and the Vikings inbounding from the backcourt, Bird believed a tie-breaking Game 3 was inevitable.
But the Vikings passed the ball over center to their best free throw shooter and caught a break when Cassandra Moffitt was called for a reach-in foul with two seconds remaining while double-teaming the player with Ashley Croswell.
Hammarskjold drained one of their two shots from the foul line to tie the game and bring about overtime.
“At that point, all the momentum shifted to them,” admitted Bird, who watched his team get outscored 7-1 in the extra session, mostly on the strength of successful free throws down the stretch.
“We had too many untimely, unlucky possessions where we were fumbling the ball,” emphasized Bird.
“If you’re playing with some level of confidence, those things don’t happen.”
While coming within a handful of baskets of getting to the provincials, Bird liked what he saw on the horizon for next year, when the Muskies will try to win a fourth straight NorWOSSA crown and maintain their current 20-game conference winning streak.
“We’ve got a good core of five coming back,” said Bird in reference to forwards Williams, Croswell and Lindsay Dixon along with guards Maggie Jean and Claire Hyatt.
“Hopefully, they’re willing to pout in the work this spring to prepare for next year,” ventured Bird.
“I think having veteran guards will go a long way towards success and with the players we have and who are likely coming up, I think we will still be able to compete physically with Kenora and Dryden.”
