The Lake Lenore Lancers went undefeated last weekend to take top prize in the Three Lakes High School senior girls' basketball tournament.
Lake Lenore used their explosive speed and pinpoint outside shooting to sink the Hague Panthers 72-48 in the tournament's final game. The six-team tournament went Friday and Saturday in Middle Lake, with teams from Biggar, Kelvington and Prince Albert also taking part.
The host Three Lakes Avengers took third place with a solid 56-43 victory over the P.A. Rivier Guardians in the consolation final. Biggar dumped Kelvington 41-23 in the fifth-place game.
Middle Lake head coach Trevor Otsig felt his squad had a decent tourney overall, but some serious letdowns - especially against Hague in Saturday morning's semi-final - cost them a chance at winning the tournament.
A slow start and some poor inside shooting saw the Avengers down 15-0 to Hague before the game was more than two minutes old. Otsig said his senior players simply didn't come ready to play.
"We missed way too many easy shots," he noted. "We were something like 10-for-32 on easy layups and shots like that. That really killed us.
"After that start I sat down my starting five and went with my juniors. They picked us up and got us back in the game."
The younger Avengers lit a fire under the Three Lakes bench and quickly pulled their team to within four points of Hague. Otsig went back to his veterans after that, and they managed to pull ahead of the Panthers early in the second half. But once again, defensive lapses cost the Avengers and they couldn't hold on.
"It's tough to win if your veteran players aren't performing," Otsig said. "You need the older ones to step up. You can't expect the grade eights and nines to carry your team."
The Avengers opened the tournament on a slightly more promising note, edging P.A. Rivier 44-42 Friday afternoon. Three Lakes jumped out to an 18-10 lead in the first half, and led by seven at the halfway point thanks to some fast-break offence and a solid defensive scheme that kept P.A. from penetrating inside the key.
Rivier made a game of it in the second half, however, as some defensive breakdowns on the part of the Avengers allowed P.A. to climb back into contention. The Rivier squad pulled to within three with 1:44 to play, courtesy of a nice jumper from three-point land, but the Avengers were ultimately able to hang on for a 44-42 victory.
"We had a strong first half in that one, but again, we let them get back into it with too much standing around, not moving our feet," Otsig said.
Middle Lake had a solid showing in their second game, defeating the Biggar Blazers 77-33. The Avengers' junior players led in that game as well, employing a man-to-man defence that put lots of pressure on the Blazers' shooters.
The young Avengers' speed was also too much for Biggar to handle.
"We wore them down," Otsig said.
Otsig stressed that his senior girls will really need to pick up their game in the coming days as they look forward to league playoffs and provincial playdowns.
Middle Lake travels to Lake Lenore to play the Lancers in the league final tonight (Wednesday), then are off to Wynyard next weekend for another tournament. Conference playdowns are March 4-5.
Otsig said in all likelihood, Middle Lake and Lake Lenore will face each other in the conference playdowns as well.
"We've played them three times and lost twice, once by one point and once by two points," he noted. "And when we beat them it was by two points, so it should be a really good match-up.
"Our chances of winning are good if we play like we can, but we'll have to play a lot better than we did this weekend."
