Joey Payeur
Instead of tears of frustration at not moving forward, there only were smiles on the faces of the vanquished hometown heroes as they savoured all they did achieve this season.
The Muskie senior girls’ basketball team was overwhelmed by the Hammarskjold Vikings, who dumped the host black-and-gold 45-10 on Friday afternoon and then 57-15 on Saturday morning to sweep the best-of-three NWOSSAA championship.
Hammarskjold now advances to the OFSAA girls’ ‘AA’ showdown, which begins tomorrow in Windsor.
Maisie Fichuk and Sarah Bagacki, two of the Muskies’ five graduating seniors, refused to hang their heads in the aftermath of a season which saw Fort High go 8-0 during the NorWOSSA regular season and then defend its league crown.
“It was great for our last year to be undefeated,” noted Fichuk.
“The seniors on this team have been together through four years,” added Bagacki.
“It’s a terrific group to be part of.”
Fichuk and Bagacki had front-row seats to the top-calibre talent of Vikings’ star Aliisa Heiskanen as the pair tried mightily—but unsuccessfully—to contain the Grade 12 forward.
Heiskanen made only two jump shots the entire weekend—preferring to repeatedly attack the rim and convert lay-up after lay-up on her way to 24 points in Game 1 and 19 in Game 2 to lead all scorers.
“No. 33 [Heiskanen] is a pretty complete player,” Muskie co-coach Dan Bird said about the Vikings’ ace, who didn’t play in the final quarter of either game after carrying Hammarskjold to a big lead both days.
“Maisie and Sarah did a good job defending her,” Bird added.
“But when you focus on one [player], that’s when one of the other four out there get good [scoring] opportunities and they took advantage of that.”
Halfway through the first quarter of Game 1, Bagacki hit a 15-footer—punctuated by a fist pump—that made it 4-2 for Hammarskjold and provided an early spark of hope the Muskies could hang with the Thunder Bay champs.
Little did Bagacki know it would be her last field goal of the weekend as the Vikings refused to give the black-and-gold’s top scorer this season any kind of room to operate the entire series.
“I was really impressed with how they played us defensively,” said Bagacki, who was held to one free throw in Game 2.
Hammarskjold went on a 19-0 run after Bagacki’s basket to lead 23-2 midway through the second quarter and 27-4 at halftime.
A 12-1 third-quarter binge put Hammarskjold up 39-7 heading into the fourth, with the Vikings’ substitutes taking the game home from there.
Megan Foster added eight points for Hammarskjold while Cassandra Moffitt had four to pace the Muskies.
Knowing they needed a better start to have a chance, Fort High again ran into a defensive wall to begin Game 2 and trailed 11-0 after the first quarter.
Moffitt, who ended the game with a team-high seven points, knocked down a 15-footer to get the Muskies on the board.
But that only triggered
another 12-0 run, highlighted by Shannon McKitrick’s three-pointer, with Foster hitting a 10-footer right at the half-time buzzer for a 29-5 advantage.
“They were such a tall team, it was never easy for us all weekend to get rebounds,” noted Moffitt.
“It was tough to be aggressive as we should have been,” she added.
“We couldn’t drive as much as we wanted.”
The second half was more of the same, with Hammarskjold widening its lead to 46-9 after three quarters before again turning to their bench in the fourth.
Bird paid tribute to his seniors by putting them back in the game for the final 52 seconds.
“It was a thank-you to them,” he explained. “They earned the right to be on the floor.”
McKitrick finished the game with 11 points for the Vikings while Kristen Setala had all nine of her points in the second half.
Looking ahead, Bird has a strong nucleus of veterans expected back next season, with the likes of Moffitt and Hannah McLeod, along with defensive aces Sarah Strain and Keira Kowalski, and guards Sierra Cousineau, Jenny Hammond, and Jaymee Fiset, who received valuable experience this season as the first Grade 10 player to make the senior Muskies’ roster.
The returnees shouldn’t take their spots for granted, though.
A fresh batch of juniors coming off their own NorWOSSA title this season will make serious bids for playing time, led by forwards Lindsay Dixon, Ashley Croswell, and Amber Williams, along with guards Claire Hyatt and Maggie Jean.
“It’s going to be a real competition, especially at the guard position,” predicted Bird, who wasn’t shy about what he sees in the black-and-gold’s future.
“I don’t want to put the cart before the horse,” he stressed. “But I expect to be playing for the NWOSSAA title at this time next year.”
“I feel we’ll do good again,” agreed Moffitt.
“We all want to go that far one more time.”
