Vikings dominate Weyburn at Hoopla to win bronze

It’s the first medal at Hoopla for the Vikings senior girls team since 2012, and it also comes after back-to-back-to-back fourth place finishes the last three years.

Grade 12 student Nahoni Tootoosis has been on the team for all of those finishes, so it was fitting that in her graduating year she played a huge role in the win.

The senior, who plays in the post, led all scorers with 30 points, including 13 straight Vikings’ points in the first half. The 30 points more than doubled her 13-point performance from Friday, when she led the Vikings in scoring as well.

“She knows the feeling of fourth place so to bring a medal home was pretty good for her,” Cottini said of Tootoosis. “Espeically against Moose Jaw Peacock, but again today, they were really focused on my main outside shooter, which opens up the paint and we knew that kind of going in… [so] when we made our big run in the bronze game, a lot of it was in the paint.”

Cammy Simon, the team’s second post player, had 16 points in Saturday’s win for the VIkings.

But guard Mia Cottini, a key cog in the team’s offence, did manage 18 points, including five three-pointers. Those three combined for 64 of the team’s 78 points.

In the semifinal game against Peacock and in the first half of the Weyburn game, the Vikings had some trouble dealing with the opposition’s press.

On Friday, they couldn’t recover in time because the deficit at half was too large. But on Saturday, they had a dominant run of their own in the third quarter.

“We were just turning the ball over and making bad decisions and we never really recovered against Peacock, but today, the girls at halftime were kind of able to settle down and once we broke their press, we could kind of run our offence and do what we wanted to do,” Cottini said, as the team outscored Weyburn 43-19 in the second half. “We just didn’t play a great game against Moose Jaw Peacock in the semi. To their credit, they played a great game. Their shooting percentage was very high and their defence and their press was solid and they just played a better game than us.”

What was particularly tough to deal with about the loss on Friday was that three quarters were neck and neck.

If not for one big run that Peacock went on in the second quarter, the result could easily have been different.

“At the start of the second quarter, my two main ball handlers had three fouls so as soon as I sat those two girls on the bench, their press became very effective and they went on like a 17-0 run or something,” Cottini said. “Then I ended up putting those two girls back in, but by then the damage was done. So we played them even for three quarters basically, but that one quarter with thsoe two starters on the bench, their press was very effective with those starters sitting.”

With only one graduating senior, this year’s ‘bronze lining’ could turn into something even better next season.

*Correction: An earlier version of this story said it was the Vikings’ first medal since 2011. It was in fact 2012.

nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca

@NathanKanter11

by Nathan Kanter

Vikings dominate Weyburn at Hoopla to win bronze

What's Trending