Lucas Punkari
After a Cinderella playoff run to advance to the NWOSSAA championship, the clock struck midnight on the Muskie senior girls’ basketball team.
The surprising NorWOSSA champs ran up against the three-time Thunder Bay champion St. Ignatius Falcons in the best two-out-of-three series over the weekend in the Lakehead, where they were swept aside in two-straight games.
“The girls played as well as they could,” noted Muskie head coach Dan Bird. “They never gave up and would score a few buckets after falling behind.
“But they just couldn’t keep pace with St. Ignatius,” he conceded.
The host Falcons opened the series with a 51-19 win Friday afternoon, then punched their ticket to the OFSAA ‘AA’ tournament in Sault Ste. Marie this weekend with a 61-22 romp Saturday morning.
“They just had a strong game both on the inside and on the outside that we couldn’t match up with,” Bird explained.
“They are a nice team that works the ball around, and they are very well-coached, and I think that they will certainly represent us [NWOSSAA] well at the all-Ontarios this year,” he added.
Leading the charge for the Falcons in both games was Katelyn Andrea, who poured in 30 points Friday afternoon before netting 16 more Saturday morning.
“She’s dangerous on both the inside and the outside, and they just kept feeding her the ball in that first game,” Bird noted.
“In the second game, we concentrated on keeping her scoring down, which we were able to do,” he added.
“But a couple of other players were able to get those baskets in from the outside instead.”
Adriane Gurski led the black-and-gold in scoring in Friday’s opener with 10 points while Kiera Lindgren was tops with a six-point outing in Saturday’s loss.
While the outcome wasn’t quite what the squad had envisioned, the Muskies pulled off a successful campaign—rebounding from a 2-6 regular-season record to capture their first NorWOSSA crown since 2009.
“This was a team that put in the time and the dedication to develop over the course of the season,” Bird stressed.
“For myself and [assistant coach] Mike [Krueger], it was good to watch that development and the team certainly gelled together when the season mattered the most,” he added.
While eight players from this year’s squad will be graduating from the high school ranks, a number from the Muskie junior girls’ team that reached the NorWOSSA final again this season are set to move up for the 2013 campaign.
“We’re looking forward to seeing those juniors come up and to start working with them,” Bird remarked.
“And for the four players that will be coming back with us next year [Maisie Fichuk, Celia Berry, Sarah Bagacki, and Lindgren], they certainly enjoyed this year’s run and they want another stab at it,” he stressed.
