For the first time since 2005, the Canora Cougars senior girl鈥檚 basketball team has advanced to the HOOPLA provincial finals.
It didn鈥檛 come easy, as the Cougars had to put in some extra work to complete an exciting, come-from-behind 74-71 overtime victory against the Foam Lake Panthers in the regional final on March 17.
Unlike most of the capacity crowd packed into the Cougars鈥� home gymnasium, who were probably quite nervous going to overtime, Janayah Merriam, Cougars captain, said she and her teammates were feeling really good about their situation.
鈥淲e were so thankful to still have a chance to win. We were behind for most of the game so we were just happy to still be playing in the overtime period.鈥�
The Cougars earned the right to host one of the 2A Regional Finals after defeating Hudson Bay and Norquay to win the Conference tournament, said Curtis Baillie, coach. 聽
In addition to the Cougars, the other three teams taking part in the Regionals were from Foam Lake, Rocanville and Unity.
On Friday the Cougars played Rocanville in the semifinal. Canora worked its way into a 40-30 lead at halftime, and cruised to an 88-50 victory.
The regional final game on March 17 proved to be a whole lot closer.
Canora faced the Foam Lake Panthers, the same team which won the 2017 final against Canora in the same gymnasium by seven points, also with a berth in HOOPLA on the line, said Baillie. 聽
鈥淲e remembered that game and worked all year to erase those seven points and make sure we could come out on top this year.鈥�
Baillie said the girls were definitely nervous and it showed in their play early in the game.
鈥淲e don't get to play many games in a packed gymnasium with that kind of noise throughout the year.鈥�
The Cougars couldn鈥檛 really get anything going offensively in the first half, and could never get the lead. But they were only down 31-30 at halftime, said Baillie.
鈥淭he girls started slowly in the second half, and at one point we found ourselves down by 12 points. During the timeouts we just kept talking about controlling the ball, executing our plays and staying in the moment. I told them if we could get on a run going, the crowd is going to be right there cheering us on.
鈥淥nce the girls started to close the gap, that auditorium was electric. Credit goes to all the fans and families who came out to support and cheer.鈥�
The Cougars were still down by four points with under 40 seconds left in the fourth quarter, but a clutch basket and two made foul shots were enough to force overtime, said Baillie.
鈥淚t was in overtime that we finally took our first lead, and we were able to maintain that till the buzzer.鈥�
Merriam said playing in front of the capacity crowd was a huge thrill.
鈥淲e wanted to get to HOOPLA so bad, and the fans really got us going.
鈥淎nd the coaches were so important. All through the game, no matter how tough the situation was, they kept our energy up just like they always do.鈥�
After the game, Baillie said he could not be prouder of the Cougars for their accomplishments.
鈥淲e set a goal at the beginning of the year to make HOOPLA, and they worked each and every week to ensure that we would meet that goal.鈥�
As graduating Grade 12 players, Merriam said she and teammate Emma Eiteneier could not have asked for a better result in their final home game.
She said most of the team members had been working toward qualifying for HOOPLA since starting junior basketball in Grade 7, and couldn鈥檛 wait for the tipoff of the Provincial semifinal game in Prince Albert, scheduled for March 23.
