In the opening round: …………………………………………………… The top-seeded Moose Jaw A.E. Peacock Toilers, the 2nd-seeded North Battleford Comprehensive Vikings, the 3rd-seeded Weyburn Eagles, the 4th-seeded Melfort Comets and the 5th-seeded Moose Jaw Vanier Spirits received byes. …………………………………………………… The 6th-seeded Moose Jaw Central Cyclones dumped the 11th-seeded Yorkton Sacred Heart Saints 50-43. …………………………………………………… The 7th-seeded Meadow Lake Carpenter Spartans clipped the 10th-seeded North Battleford John Paul II Crusaders 54-46. The Crusaders included Kiandra Bourelle. …………………………………………………… The 9th-seeded Warman Wolverines stomped the 8th-seeded Balgonie Greenall Griffins 74-29. The Griffins (coached by Amy McFarlen) included Amber Shivak, Keisha Hertz, Hannah MacDonald.
In the quarterfinals, the top-seeded Moose Jaw A.E. Peacock Toilers whipped the 9th-seeded Warman Wolverines 82-53. The Wolverines (coached by Betty Bird) included Breanne Boy and Bailey Johnson.
The 5th-seeded
Moose Jaw Vanier Spirits stomped the 4th-seeded Melfort Comets
72-32. Rachel Linnell led the Comets with 11. Alexa Hangs-Copeland added 10. Comets
coach Penny Anderson said leg injuries to Maddi Garchinski and Nina Wingate and
the absence of Tyrelle Audette due to other commitments undid her troops. “We
were just too short in that department and it cost us dearly,” she told the Moose
Jaw Times Herald. “We played Moose Jaw Vanier just two weeks ago when we had
everybody uninjured and there and beat Vanier by one in a really close battle.
… We only shot 30% from the foul line, which we normally hit 60-70%
from. With pressure from Vanier, I think due to just being up tight and
so young. We fought hard and trailed by 10-20 points most of the game. We
caught up to within 12 about the middle of the third quarter and I thought maybe
were going to come back but was not to be. Rachel Linnell fouled out
middle of the fourth, and they just pulled away in the fourth quarter.” The
Comets (coached by Penny Anderson) also included Keeley Hangs-Copeland and
Taylor Johnson.
The 2nd-seeded North
Battleford Comprehensive Vikings dumped the 7th-seeded Meadow Lake
Carpenter Spartans 54-35. The Spartans (coached by Carla Waterman) included Devri
Michel, Grace Rodrigue and Kate Gozee.
In the last quarterfinal, the 3rd-seeded Weyburn Eagles dusted the 6th-seeded Moose Jaw Central Cyclones 56-39. The Cyclones (coached by Jocelyn Wigmore) included Rachel Lorge, Aby Korbo, Steph O’Byrne, Hana Zymberi, Kasey Gardiner, Marlee Barber, Sydney Booth and Brooke Meili.
In the semis, the top-seeded Moose Jaw A.E. Peacock Toilers dumped the 2nd-seeded North Battleford Comprehensive Vikings 62-44. Macaela Crone led the Toilers with 22 before being sidelined by a mild knee injury. Libby Epoch added 16, including 4 treys. Mia Cottini paced the Vikings with 10. “Good teams have to overcome adversity and to be quite honest that’s the first game where we’ve had to overcome adversity and we did,” Toilers coach Renee Verge told the Moose Jaw Times-Herald. “I was slate that as a bit of an ugly win in some ways, but we did the job and we did what we needed to do. That was a very important game to win. They have a goal to win a provincial gold and now we have a shot to do that.” Crone was under-cut by a Viking who was trying to box out as Crone landed after shooting a trey. She then notched a block and a trey as the Toilers built their lead to 20 before being subbed out by grade 9 post Emily MacKenzie. “Because we had a Grade 9 coming on, I felt like I really had to step up my game and had to play really hard,” said post Shelby Olsen, who scored 11. “We expected them to be pretty physical, but as long as we played hard D, that’s what matters.” Verge said her troops started slowly. “Even though we were on our home court and everything is the same, it still feels a little different. It always takes a little bit for them to calm down.” Vikings coach Bryan Cottini said his troops hoped to slow the tempo to a crawl. “That was a huge part of our game plan. We weren’t even going to have our forwards or guards rebound. After we shot, we sent them back to the top of the key to stop the fast break. We knew we couldn’t press them because Libby is unreal with the ball.”
In the other semi, the 3rd-seeded Weyburn Eagles clipped the 5th-seeded Moose Jaw Vanier Spirits 61-51 in double overtime. Jada Kot led the Eagles with 21. Rebeka Flanagan led the Spirits with 10. The Score was knotted at 45 after regulation. “My bench really stepped up, my two point guards got fouled out and so my bench, my grade 10 guards had to come through,” Weyburn head coach Karly Johnson told Discover Moose Jaw. “I couldn’t be more proud of them, we’re a true team when everybody steps up like that.”
In the bronze medal match, the 5th-seeded Moose Jaw Vanier Spirits defeated the 2nd-seeded North Battleford Comprehensive Vikings 59-51. “I can’t believe that they had enough left in the tank to get things done after (Friday night),” Spirits Greg Reidy told DiscoverMooseJaw.com. “The minute we made our first basket, it was like we hadn’t played in a week. We had so much energy and we fed off it, there was contributions across the board today, off the bench, that was one of the easiest games that I’ve had to coach.” The Spirits led 30-25 lead at the half. “We worked really hard to get here, it was a really hard against Weyburn (in the semifinals), but we didn’t drop down really, we came out full of energy and everyone played as hard as they could,” said Spirit guard Megan Auger. “We were 1-1 against North Battleford before today and it came down to who wanted the ball more and who wanted this medal more, and we played with everything that we have.” Kirah Brown led Vanier with 14. Auger added 11, Emily Reidy 9 and Rebeka Flanagan 9. Coach Reidy said this “is such a coachable crew, we wanted to be aggressive, we said that both teams played a hard game yesterday and it’s a battle of mental will right now, everybody is tired, everybody is banged up, but mentally can you stay strong enough to stay on the attack and we did, and we got contributions on the score sheet across the board, it’s great.” The Vikings (coached by Bryan Cottini) also included Nahoni Tootoosis, Kaitlyn Friesen.
In the final, the top-seeded Moose Jaw A.E. Peacock Toilers whipped the 3rd-seeded Weyburn Eagles 73-41 to capture their third consecutive provincial title. Macaela Crone led the Toilers with 29. Brynna Spence paced the Eagles with 22. “It’s really emotional, but it’s all happy tears to be going out on this great note with our great coaches and our great team,” said Libby Epoch told DiscoverMooseJaw.com. Toilers coach Renee Verge said “we knew if we ran it was going to take care of itself and it did. The girls shot very well, Macaela (Crone) got the okay to go (after a mild knee injury in the semis) and that changes things for us, so it felt like we were just back to doing what we do best today.” Macaela Crone led the Toilers with 29. “In this environment you’re going to miss some of those easy lay-ups, but she scored some key hoops, the crowd got into it, we settled down and then we settled into our offence, it was a great way to start,” said Verge. Libby Epoch added 22. “We had to battle hard in our first game with (Macaela) out and today we just left it all out there and it really showed, we played our game again and it was effective for us,” said Epoch. “I have to keep reminding myself that we just won Hoopla again, it’s been awesome winning these three years and after my grade 9 year, if feels like we deserve it almost.” Weyburn coach Karly Johnson said “they’re the best team in the province, probably in every division from 1A to 5A, so we knew it was going to be a really tough game and we tried to prepare for it,” said Weyburn coach Karly Johnson.
The bronze medalist Moose Jaw Vanier Spirits: Rebeka Flanagan; Kirah Brown; Megan Auger; Emily Reidy; Alexis Jones; Adrianna Phillips; coach Greg Reidy
The silver medalist Weyburn Eagles: Brynna Spence; Jada Kot; coach Karly Johnson; coach Wade Oberg
The gold medalist Moose Jaw A.E. Peacock Toilers: Macaela Crone; Libby Epoch; Ceanna Bruce; Haley Rosso; Alexia Aikman; Shelby Olsen; Emily MacKenzie; Megan MacDonald; Abby Busch; Shannon Patoine; Katherine McDougall; coach Renee Verge; assistant Penny Maelde; assistant Kristy Oonincx; manager Brittnee Dunlop