In the Interzone playoffs: …………………………………………………… In the semis, the Brandon T.A. Neelin Spartans defeated the Dauphin Clippers x-x. …………………………………………………… In the final, the Brandon T.A. Neelin Spartans defeated the Swan River Swan Valley Tigers x-x.
In the wildcard game, the Swan River Swan Valley Tigers defeated the Winnipeg Westgate Wings x-x.
In the quarterfinals, the 5th-seeded Thompson R.D Parker Trojans defeated the 4th-seeded Winnipeg St. John’s Ravenscourt Eagles 54-47 as Sam Bertram scored 15. Ang Griffith paced St. John’s Ravenscourt with 27. St. John’s Ravenscourt led 25-23 at the half. The Eagles (coached by Kelly Heape and Jody Rock) also included Ida Lai, Ashley Loewen, Cara Isaak, Anna Stewart, Leah Gardner, Brittney Winter, Kirsten Muncle, Taylor Rusnak, Jamie Ng and Emily McNally.
The top-seeded Brandon T.A. Neelin Spartans dumped the 8th-seeded Beausejour Edward Schreyer Barons 90-23 as Jessica Decter scored 26. Chrissy Hildebrand led the Barons with 13. Neelin led 56-8 at the half. The Barons (coached by Ray Algera) also included Kailey Markham, Cyndal Henderson, Delaney Coelho, Laura Thomson, Jocelyn Best, Danielle Merry, Chelsea Barkman, Katie Hildebrand, Susan Thomson, Nicole Stubel and Samantha Gagnon.
The 3rd-seeded St. Norbert Celtics clipped the 6th-seeded Portage Pats 60-49 as Nicole Balliet scored 27. Shantel Schwartz led Portage with 11. St. Norbert led 20-18 at the half. The Pats (coached by Janey Bradford, Christine Lisowski and Tracy Vanstone) included Carly Trowsky, Kassi Porter, Brittany Dinwoodie, Belinda Lesage, Madeleine Dolby, Shantel Schwartz, Carley Lake, Jayla Bousquet, Ashley Yanchycki, Sydney Gilbert, Amy Allan, Tonia Traverse and Dayna Yurkiw.
In the last quarterfinal, the 2nd-seeded Swan River Swan Valley Tigers edged the 7th-seeded Winnipeg Linden Christian Wings 49-47 as Courtnee Stewart scored 11 and Hallie Eggie 8. Kaleigh Trask led Linden Christian with 16. Swan Valley led 19-16 at the half. The Wings (coached by John Friesen, assisted by Marianne Bergmann) also included MacKenzie Loewen, Tamara Nathaniel, Courtney Bakun, Jenna Hill, Kristen Hughes, Brenlee Loewen, Kristin Neufeld, Jennifer Billeck, Jen Parker, Ashley Streuber and Andrea Streuber
In the semis, the top-seeded Brandon T.A. Neelin Spartans defeated the 5th-seeded Thompson R.D. Parker Trojans 73-52 as Allyson Menzies scored 23. Samantha Bertram paced the Trojans with 20. The Spartans led 43-16 at the half.
In the other semi, the 2nd-seeded Swan River Swan Valley Tigers clipped the 3rd-seeded St. Norbert Celtics 67-60 as Hallie Eggie scored 23 and Sarah Alford 17. Brooke Semchuk led St. Norbert with 22. St. Norbert led 30-24 at the half.
In the bronze medal match, the 3rd-seeded St. Norbert Celtics whipped the 5th-seeded Thompson R.D. Parker Trojans 74-49. The Celtics led 39-20 at the half. The Trojans (Sara Gillis, assisted by Chris Victor) included Allison Majeran, Samantha Bertram, Sara Shea, Leah Keiser, Courtney McKay, Ana Giannopoulos, Christine Sim, Anita Labonte, Erica Lowe, Christina Moody, Kaysi Voigt and Tia Morrison.
In the final, the top-seeded Brandon T.A. Neelin Spartans hammered the 2nd-seeded Swan River Swan Valley Tigers 54-32 as tournament MVP Allyson Menzies scored 21. Hallie Eggie led Swan Valley with 8 and Sarah Alford 6. Whitney Fried was chosen player of the game for the Tigers. The Spartans led 25-25 at the half. It was the Spartans fifth provincial crown in six years. The only miss? A year earlier as a result of semi-final loss to the Tigers. “No one likes to admit it maybe but there’s a good feeling beating them,” Sarah Lopes told the Brandon Sun. “We just had to put that behind us though and play hard like we would against any other team.” The Spartans went scoreless for 10 minutes in the first half before ripping off an 11-2 run in the final three minutes. “I think we were just really tight and it showed up in our shooting,” said Neelin coach Mike Hill. “The kids worked hard and played excellent defence and that’s what carried us through. Once we relaxed a little bit and started to shoot the ball, then we were fine.” Jessica Decter added 11 for the Spartans and Lopes 7. Menzies said “there was definitely nerves about being here and having everybody watching us. But I think just the support that we got from them and the fact they were cheering for us and it wasn’t the noise for the other team, I think that really helped us. We know our court, we know our baskets and it’s fun to play here.” Hallie Eggie led the Tigers with 8. Hill said “this one is special because of the five Grade 12s (Menzies, Lopes, captain Andrea Spence, Kirsten Lawson and Jacquie Stevens). The other ones are special for different reasons, for the memories. When Coach (Kirsten) Davies (played) — the first one we won (in 1999) — we weren’t even supposed to be there, so that one was special.” Tigers coach Kevin Carter told the Swan River Star and Times that “we were really happy to make provincials. We worked all year to get there and were overjoyed to make it. … The girls should be proud. They might not be able to see the magnitude of their success right now, but I hope they realize that it is a big accomplishment to finish second in the province. … This weekend was a true test of character. In our first game we were down seven points with only a few minutes left to go, but ended up winning and moving on to semifinals. In the game against St. Norbert we also had a slow start but we didn’t panic and maintained our composure and got ourselves to the final game against Neelin. We played really well, and our record shows that. We won more games than we lost. Everyone showed up and worked hard, even when we lost interzones and had to sit on pins and needles to find out if we had a wildcard position or not. We had our ups and downs, but the season was successful and fun.”
The bronze medalist St. Norbert Celtics: Danielle Saurette; Jaime Semchuk; Andrea Belisle; Allyson Greene; Dayna Schulz; Brittany Laurencelle; Teresa McMullan; Nicole Balliet; Brooke Semchuk; Amie Seier; Rhea Dufort; Tessa Harvey; Geri Rempel; coach Denis Marinelli; coach Colin Ritchie; coach Dale Fust; coach Neil Reavely; coach Michelle Stone
The silver medalist Swan River Swan Valley Tigers: Hallie Eggie; Ali Maidy; Whitney Fried; Melissa Johnson; Courtney Dubyk; Lindsay Buchanan; Courtnee Stewart; Laura Alford; Marcie Schabert; Jessica Maxwell; Sarah Alford; Darby Branconnier; Kelsie Hart; coach Kevin Carter; coach Al Maidy
The gold medalist Brandon T.A. Neelin Spartans: Nichole Ragush; Andrea Spence; Kirsten Lawson; Jessica Decter; Jacquie Stevens; Sarah Lopes; Allyson Menzies; Jessi-Beth McCannell; Alise Gaiser; Stephanie Lacey-Avon; coach Michael Hill; coach Kirsten Davies; coach Karen More; manager Lawrie Hamersley