In the wildcard games: …………………………………………………… The Selkirk Lord Selkirk Royals blasted the Winnipeg Sisler Spartans 81-54 as Kris Heidman scored 20. The Spartans included Diana Kowalik, Sherri Wood. …………………………………………………… The Winnipeg Glenlawn Lions edged the Winnipeg River East Kodiaks 52-48. The Kodiaks included Andrea Opaleke, Shelly Derksen.
In the opening round: …………………………………………………… The Brandon Vincent Massey Vikings defeated Winnipeg JH Bruns Broncos 68-16 as Cindy Gabor scored 13. The Broncos were a last-minute replacement for the Windsor Park Royals. The Vikings took the court expecting their foe to be the Royals but for reasons unknown to the Brandon Sun, the Broncos took the floor. The Vikings led 40-6 at the half. “We weren’t nervous,” said Broncos coach Ken Chapman. “We played pretty good, actually. They’re just a really good team.” Farnell was pleased to give the bench minutes but said “it didn’t do our starters any good. There was no intensity. We’re the type of team that likes to press and we didn’t press at all.” Lisa Mazur and Cindy Gabor each scored 13 to lead the Vikings. Judith Friesen added 12. Vicki Taraska led the Broncos with 10. The Broncos also included Kelly Hunter. …………………………………………………… The Selkirk Lord Selkirk Regional Royals whipped the Winnipeg John Taylor Pipers 75-53 as Dawn Szewczyk scored 22. The Pipers included Ermenia Dibernardo, Tracey Essery, Kathy McIlraith. …………………………………………………… The Winnipeg Vincent Massey Trojans clocked the Winnipeg Grant Park Pirates 72-49 as Heather Adams scored 19. The Pirates included Pam Glover, Holly Stusiak. …………………………………………………… The Winnipeg Glenlawn Lions whipped the Winnipeg Daniel McIntyre Maroons 77-43 as Joyce Olsen hit 26. The Maroons included Rosa Zefarelli, Ruth Heidbuurt, Pam Winkler. …………………………………………………… The Winnipeg Kildonan East Reivers smacked the Winnipeg Nelson McIntyre Normacs 82-28. The Normacs included Lisa Jubinville. …………………………………………………… The 13th-seeded Brandon Crocus Plains Plainsmen clipped the 4th-seeded Winnipeg West Kildonan Weskays 53-45. “Everybody gave us the impression we were the underdogs,” Leanne Cale, who hit 5-6 from the line down the stretch, told the Brandon Sun. “We were nervous, but we thought if we played as well as we could, we could beat them. It’s a good feeling. Everyone thought we couldn’t do it but we proved we could.” The Plainsmen broke to an 18-5 lead, led 24-13 at the half and 40-30 after three quarters. But then they briefly panicked and relinquished an 11-0 run. “It wasn’t so much panic as much as the fact all of a sudden we didn’t have a clue what to do,” said Crocus’ coach Bob Hamilton. I didn’t think it was over. But I was worried.” But Cale came in off the bench and hit a free throw to knot the score at 41. Danette Palmer paced the Plainsmen with 20, Jodi Bright 17 and Cale 7. Kim Bertholet led the Weskays with 22. Tammy Klos added 11. The Westkays also included Chantelle Roersma, Laurie Korel. …………………………………………………… The Winnipeg Dakota Lancers dumped the Winnipeg St. John’s Tigers 61-47 as Lisa Thomas scored 21, Corinne Doerksen 16 and Sandra Baker 15. Barb Suszynski led the Tigers with 15. Wanda Drapula added 14. The Tigers also included Mignon Alfonso, June Cotte, Andrea Herbert.
In the quarterfinals, the top-seeded Brandon Vincent Massey Vikings defeated the Winnipeg Westwood Warriors 65-39. “They’re cool under pressure,” Trojans coach Stew Farnell told the Brandon Sun. “When they make a mistake, they don’t worry about it, they don’t get riled. When they get behind, they’re all the more determined.” The Warriors led 20-17 after one quarter as their press resulted in easy transition buckets. Farnell said “the problem with the press in the first quarter was that our people were so worried about making a mistake, they weren’t moving enough.” But Farnell inserted Paula Gabor and the momentum shifted. She hounded Westwood star guard Lynne Adams, to the point where Warriors coach Addy Ryngach cried foul. “It may sound like sour grapes but they didn’t call a lot of the contact on our guards. We weren’t able to cope with it. We were more worried about the referees than with them.” Paula Gabor, who scored 8, said “I think we were nervous at the start. We only beat them by four points when we played them this year so we knew anything could happen. When you know it’s going to be a tough game you work a lot harder. “We wanted to beat them by a lot.” Cindy Gabor led the Vikings with 17. Friesen added 13, Lynn Zemliak 12 and Lisa Mazur 10. Lynne Adams paced the Warriors with 14. The Warriors also included Tracy Hornby, Stephanie Oland, Tanis Harder, Tracey Johannson, Lynne Adams, Debbie Yacheson.
The Selkirk Lord Selkirk Regional Royals defeated the 3rd-seeded Winnipeg Vincent Massey Trojans 69-63 as Joanne Onishko scored 29. Heather Adam paced the Trojans with 23. Facing a higher seed didn’t intimidate the Royals, said coach Wendy Goodbrandson. “The girls didn’t let any of that get to them. They played with a lot of determination. It all just seemed to make them dig down deeper.” The Trojans included Lynda Richardson, Dru McCormick, Susan Buller, Linda Schwetz, Danette Benjamin.
The 2nd-seeded Winnipeg Kildonan East Reivers clipped the Winnipeg Glenlawn Lions 68-45 as Linda Tartaryn and Paulette Jerrard each scored 17. The Lions included Andrea Cox, Faye Cox, Cheryl Reid, Laura Petrie, Joyce Olcen.
In the last quarterfinal, the Winnipeg Dakota Lancers thrashed the Brandon Crocus Plains Plainsmen 59-37 as Sandra Baker and Leslie Thomas each scored 19. The Plainsmen led 8-7 early but then folded their tents as the Lancers exploded with an 18-0 run. “I didn’t think we did that badly on defence,” said Crocus’ coach Bob Hamilton. “But we couldn’t get our offence going. There was no continuity on offence. … We just sort of threw the ball around.” The Lancers led 31-14 at the half. Leanne Yarish paced the Plainsmen with 11. Leanne Cale added 10. The Plainsmen (coached by Bob Hamilton) also included Dannette Palmer, Wendy Lawrence, Sandi Epp, Cindy Rey, Jody Bright, Jody Shyiak.
In the semis, the top-seeded Brandon Vincent Massey Vikings defeated the Winnipeg Dakota Lancers 55-43 as 5-11 Lorna Braaksma and 5-11 Judith Friesen each scored 13. Stew Farnell, in his 16th year at the helm, told the Winnipeg Free Press that the Vikings focused on defence. “We concentrated all week against defending on (Sandra) Baker and their big girl (6-2 Leslie Thomas) and I thought we did a good job on those two in first half and last quarter. We followed our game plan, which was to be deliberate on offence and look for the shots we wanted. … We’ve been ranked number one all year. I’d say that if they’d have beaten us, it would have been an upset.” Corinne Doerkson led Dakota with 15.
In the other semi, the Selkirk Lord Selkirk Regional Royals upset the Winnipeg Kildonan East Reivers 68-63 as Tammy Gudmundson scored 18 and Joanne Onishko 16. Angie Zubrin and Corrine Kelsey led Kildonan East with 12 apiece. Gudmundson told the Winnipeg Free Press that “I don’t think anyone thought that we’d make it this far. I think it (being underdogs) made us work harder.”
In the final, the top-seeded Brandon Vincent Massey Vikings defeated the Selkirk Lord Selkirk Royals 56-53. Liza Masur scored a field goal with 1:12 to go. She then stole the ball, was fouled and iced the win with two free throws. Cindy Gabor added another pair of insurance free throws. Massey finished (31-3) on the season. Cindy Gabor scored 16 to pace the Vikings. Selkirk used a full court press to take a 20-12 lead at the quarter and a 32-20 lead at the half. But Vincent Massey went on a 21-8 run in the third quarter to take a 41-40 lead. Vikings coach Stew Farnell told the Winnipeg Free Press that “we were very tight at the beginning. But once we got settled down and began to play the way we knew we could play, we knew we could come back. All year, we’ve always come back. We just made an adjustment to their 1-3-1 zone and gave a little more freedom to Cindy and told her to take the shot when she got it.” Farnell told the Brandon Sun that “I can’t believe a group of Grade 11s and 10s can have this much character. … We’ve been down in games by nine and 10 points before and we’ve come back. We’re used to the pressure. My opinion is that when it was close in the last few minutes Selkirk started to panic. They threw up some stupid shots that they don’t normally take.” Selkirk coach Wendy Goodbrandson said “we started doing a lot of things that were not natural for us. We lost our heads.” Gabor said the first half was a mystery. “I don’t know if it was nerves, or what, but we weren’t playing our game. We weren’t playing offence, we weren’t playing defence. We were just throwing the ball around. … We’ve been down before and we’ve come back. It seems like we play better when we’re down. We’re more determined. We knew we were still in it. It was only 12 points.” Farnell said “everybody kept asking me: What did you say at the half?’ I said nothing. What is there to say? It was just a matter of them deciding for themselves to pull things together.” Farnell and co-coach Mike Hill shifted Judith Friesen, normally a post, to a forward position. “They surprised us with their zone,” said Farnell. “They played a 1-3-1 and it gave us some problems. At the half we made an adjustment that opened up the base line for us.” Goodbrandson said “our girls were not able to adjust to it. We changed our defence only a couple weeks ag6 and with all the noise we couldn’t communicate. I don’t know, maybe we were out-coached. … They were making a lot of their set shots. So we moved out and tried to stop that. Then they went inside and scored. They’re hard to defence. They don’t have just one person, they have six and anyone of them can score.” Lorna Braaksma added 10 for the Vikings, Judith Friesen 9, Lisa Mazur 9 and Paula Gabor 8. Dawn Szewczyk led the Royals with 17. Kris Heidman added 14 and Joanne Onishko 11. Royals guard Kris Heidman told the Selkirk Journal “we had this game. I don’t know how it happened.”
The co-bronze medalist Winnipeg Dakota Lancers: Corinne Doerksen; Sandra Baker; Leslie Thomas; Joyce Oleen; coach Dennis Alvestad
The co-bronze medalist Winnipeg Kildonan East Reivers: Angie Zubrin; Corinne Kelsey; Linda Tartaryn; Paulette Jerrard; Corra Yakemew; Chris Torch; Kim Dobensky; coach Brenda Richardson; coach Karla Gould
The silver medalist Selkirk Lord Selkirk Regional Royals: Kris Heidman; Joanne Onishko; Tammy Gudmundson; Dawn Szewczyk; Letta Buizer; Carol Ellison; Eileen Preun; coach Wendy Goodbrandson; assistant Dean Goodbrandson
The gold medalist Brandon Vincent Massey Vikings: Cindy Gabor; Lorna Braaksma; Judith Friesen; Liza Mazur; Candie Hutton; Lynn Cornish; Paula Gabor; Lynn Zemliak; coach Stew Farnell; assistant Mike Hill