Joey Payeur
With the championship trophy back in their grasp, the five graduating seniors of the Muskie senior girls’ basketball team savoured another in a long list of title victories.
But this one—the last to bear the NorWOSSA brand—was just a little more special.
The Muskies throttled the Kenora Broncos 44-26 in the title game Friday in Dryden to advance to the NWOSSAA ‘AA’ championship this weekend on home court, where they’ll host the powerhouse Hammarskjold Vikings, who went unbeaten in their march through the Thunder Bay high school circuit.
The winner moves on to the OFSAA ‘AA’ showdown Nov. 21-23 in Windsor.
The victory means the quintet of Sarah Bagacki, Keira Lindgren, Celia Berry, Maise Fichuk, and Kimya Shahi finish their NorWOSSA careers with four league crowns as many years.
“This means a lot being our last NorWOSSA,” said Berry, the team’s high-spirited point guard who buried a three-pointer in the third quarter that virtually torpedoed the Broncos’ fading hopes and whose injection of energetic fun was a key to the mostly soft-spoken Muskie roster’s success.
“We’re like a family,” she added.
Shahi, meanwhile, was rewarded by co-coaches Dan Bird and Mike Krueger for her dedication to the team—despite minimal playing time through the season—by getting to stay on the court for the last eight minutes of the final.
“What a terrific way to finish off my senior year,” said the beaming forward, whose all-out effort all season earned her the respect of her teammates.
“The starters are so supportive of the bench players, especially when we’re on the court.”
The team’s leading scorer this season, Bagacki had a quiet eight-point outing in the final after drawing extra defensive attention from Kenora from the second quarter on.
But that added focus on stopping the smooth-shooting Bagacki only made it easier for other players to get easy looks at the basket, with nine different Muskies hitting the scoresheet.
“An undefeated season is really sweet and was one of our goals,” noted Bagacki.
“It’s an awesome feeling to have done this.”
Lindgren, who also had eight points Friday and was a rebounding and shot-blocking force the entire season, said a change in attitude was a crucial factor in taking a 9-5 lead after one quarter and stretching it to 21-13 by halftime.
“We were expecting Kenora to give us trouble,” admitted Lindgren, who, along with Bagacki, trailed only Hannah McLeod (team-high 10 points) in the final.
“We just slowed the game down in the second quarter,” she noted.
“We were pretty frantic out there at the start.”
Bird applauded the work of all his players, but in particular the experienced veteran unit.
“They played a pretty composed game and did all we asked of them in this game,” said Bird, whose squad outscored Kenora 11-1 in the third quarter and didn’t give up a second-half field goal until there was 3:50 to go.
Tyanna Carpenter led the Broncos with 11 points, although most came at garbage time late in the fourth with the outcome already decided.
Rylee Smith and Skye Schott each netted five.
Now come the Vikings, who downed the St. Ignatius Falcons 49-40 in their league final Monday and appear to be heavy favourites against the host black-and-gold.
But Fichuk isn’t about to run any white flags up the pole in front of Fort High.
“It helps a lot that we were at NWOSSAA last year,” said the forward with the charitable heart off the court but who gives no quarter on it.
“We know what to expect,” she added. “We’re going to work hard and we’ve got the home court.”
That last part was emphasized and echoed by Bagacki and Berry.
“It would be terrific to have people out there cheering us on this weekend,” Bagacki stressed.
“We’re asking the town to please come support us,” said Berry.
Game 1 of the best-of-three NWOSSAA showdown goes Friday, with tip-off tentatively slated for 7 p.m.
That could change depending on the travel schedule of the referees, who will be working earlier in the day at the NWOSSAA ‘A’ championship hosted by the Rainy River Owls.
Game 2 is set for Saturday at 10 a.m., with Game 3 (if necessary) at 2 p.m.
