Joey Payeur
The sting of a year ago still is felt by those who went through the experience.
Now an opportunity for payback has landed in their lap.
The Muskie senior girls’ basketball team claimed its third-straight NorWOSSA crown Friday in Kenora after routing the Dryden Eagles 51-18 in the league final.
The win also capped a second-straight undefeated NorWOSSA season and stretched the team’s league winning streak to 20.
“Those numbers sound good to me,” grinned Muskie forward Hannah McLeod, one of four Grade 12s who now has two titles to her credit.
“I think the reason we do so well is that we’re all friends with each other even outside of the game,” she noted.
Awaiting the black-and-gold this weekend in the best-of-three NWOSSAA final is a familiar and formidable foe in the Hammarskjold Vikings, who pounded Fort High 45-10 and 57-15 to sweep last year’s series here to advance to the OFSAA.
Fort High also was blown out by the Vikings in an early-season tournament game, but then gave Hammarskjold a run for its money at the Westgate Tigers’ tournament three weeks ago—and that was with only six players available to the Muskies that weekend.
“It’ll be a tall task,” admitted Muskie co-coach Dan Bird. “But I feel better prepared with four of the girls knowing what to expect from having played Hammarskjold last year.
“Our five starters can keep up with their five but we’re going to have to do this as a team,” he stressed.
If the Muskies want to make it to Kingsville for this year’s OFSAA ‘AA’ championship Nov. 20-22, they’ll have to come up with a different strategy to stop ultra-dangerous Hammarskjold centre Aliisa Heiskanen.
The Vikings’ own “Finnish Flash” scored 24 points in Game 1 and 19 points in Game 2 last year to lead Hammarskjold to victory.
On Monday, she emphatically confirmed herself as the Vikings’ top scoring threat when she torched the second-seeded St. Ignatius Falcons for 36 points in a 54-42 win for top-ranked Hammarskjold to clinch the SSSSA title in Thunder Bay.
But Muskie veteran Cassandra Moffitt, who had a game-high 19 points in the NorWOSSA final, isn’t planning to travel four hours east simply to witness a coronation ceremony.
“The second game with them [this year] was really close and that was with us having just six,” she noted.
“All Hammarskjold does is try and shoot ‘threes’ and get the ball to their tall girl [Heiskanen],” Moffitt added.
“I think St. Ignatius would have been tougher because they are more balanced offensively.”
Balance was on display for the other Muskies outside of Moffitt in Friday’s NorWOSSA final, with Amber Williams scoring eight points while McLeod, Claire Hyatt, and Maggie Jean each had six.
Moffitt said staying composed on offence might be even more important in trying to dethrone the Vikings.
“I think we work the ball around slower with this year’s team and not shoot as much,” she noted.
“The four of us who went through last year work together really good and know what to do,” Moffitt added.
“And our Grade 11s we know are going to work hard≤” she remarked.
“They want this as much as we do.”
Bird said Moffitt’s high-scoring heroics from last Friday need to be supplemented by the rest of the lineup.
“It was great to see Cass step up like she did, but we can’t rely on just her for eight quarters,” stressed Bird, who will have Grade 11 forward Lindsay Dixon back after she missed the NorWOSSA playoffs with a foot injury.
“However, we did have seven out of nine players on Friday score and the other two had their opportunities,” he noted.
Forward Kiera Kowalski, another one of the Muskie veterans, reiterated the team concept as the formula for success.
“Everyone has their individual strengths,” she said. “If we work hard and get our shots to fall, we can do this.”
Grade 12 guard Sierra Cousineau echoed Kowalski’s thoughts.
“We just have to realize they’re just another team, it doesn’t matter where they’re from,” she said.
“Hopefully, we can do our thing when it counts.”
The only Grade 12 Muskie going through the NWOSSAA fire for the first time is guard Abbi Perreault, who made the team after four years away from competitive basketball.
“Being in my last year, I wanted to challenge myself to see if I could make it,” Perreault explained.
“When I commit to something, I commit to it hard.”
Perreault said Fort High can’t play at a faster speed than it is comfortable with.
“Our biggest key is patience, waiting for the plays to set themselves and wait for the clear shot,” she remarked.
“Our whole reason for going there this weekend is to bring it [NWOSSAA title] home.”
