Lucas Punkari
A trip to the Lakehead was well worth it for the Muskie girls’ basketball teams over the weekend as both came away with third-place finishes at their respective tournaments.
Rebounding from earlier losses to Hammarskjold and St. Ignatius, the senior squad defeated NorWOSSA rival Kenora 21-16 in overtime in the bronze-medal game on Saturday.
“That was another tight game that we had against them,” noted Mike Krueger, who coaches the team along with Dan Bird.
“Kenora was able to take a 7-5 lead in the first quarter, but we stayed right with them and created a lot of turnovers by putting the pressure on them, which allowed us to shut them out in the third quarter,” he recalled.
“In overtime, Kenora ran into a bit of foul trouble, and Erika Moffitt and Alanna Walsh were both able to sink some big free-throws to help give us the win.”
The win also was a measure of revenge for the black-and-gold after they had lost a NorWOSSA contest 24-18 in Kenora on Wednesday afternoon, which dropped their league record to 2-3.
“We just didn’t execute our offence once again,” Krueger sighed.
“Our zone defence probably went a little bit south also, and I think that after halftime Kenora might have wanted to get the win a little bit more than we did,” he added.
As for the junior girls, they extended their NorWOSSA winning streak to four-straight games last Wednesday in Kenora, improving to 4-1 with a 32-18 victory over the host Broncos thanks, in large part, to a 22-point outburst from Sarah Bagacki.
“We had our starting players play for the whole first quarter and part of the second, and they really took control of the game and gave us a comfortable lead to work with,” explained Sarah Faragher, who coaches the team along with Marla Knutsen.
“Because of that, we were able to cycle our players around.
“And it was good to give some of our younger players a chance to help with their development with some playing time,” Faragher reasoned.
Then at the tournament in Thunder Bay over the weekend, the black-and-gold split their round-robin contests—a win over Churchill and a loss to Hammarskjold—before knocking off Westgate in the third-place game.
“One of the exciting things for us, as coaches, was seeing our full-court trap press come together in that game against Westgate,” Faragher noted.
“Everything just started to finally click for the girls, and there was probably eight-10 turnovers that we forced, and we were able to go down the court and score baskets off of those plays.”
The juniors return to tournament action this weekend when they host six teams for what will be a round-robin format event, with Fort High taking on St. Ignatius, St. Patrick’s, and Rainy River.
“The [Rainy River] Owls have an excellent team and we have yet to see those two Thunder Bay teams, so it’s going to be nice to meet up with them and play some new competitive teams,” Faragher remarked.
As for NorWOSSA play, both basketball squads welcomed Dryden to the Fort High gym yesterday before heading to Kenora tomorrow afternoon.
The eight-game regular season then wraps up here next Tuesday here against the Eagles.
“For us, we just want to try and solidify ourselves at the top of the standings as we are in a tight race right now with Dryden,” Faragher noted.
“We have a lot of games left to play, so the main thing we are going to be working on is the basics of the game.”
That feeling is echoed by Krueger, whose team is trying to resume their winning ways prior to the NorWOSSA playoffs Nov. 10 in Dryden.
“We are just hoping that the basics of the game will start to click in here, and that baskets will start falling for us,” he remarked.
