The Three Lakes Avengers made it a two-for-two sweep in junior basketball districts last weekend, with both the boys' and girls' teams bringing home the pennant.
The Three Lakes junior boys defeated St. Brieux in a 45-42 thriller to win their district title Saturday at the Humboldt Collegiate gymnasium. Farther along Highway 5 in Muenster, the Avengers girls duplicated that with a masterful 79-36 domination of the Wynyard Bears.
"It's definitely satisfying," said Avengers head coach Lisa Parsons. "We may not have the tallest team, but we've got the speed. I rolled the lines like I've done all season, and all the girls did their part."
Post Heather Martin led the Avengers' onslaught with 22 points in the final, while point guards Julie Baker and Haley Olynuk put up 15 and 14 points, respectively. A solid defensive team effort took care of the rest.
Despite barreling out to an early 14-5 lead, the Avengers didn't really get their groove on until the second half. It was a three-point game at halftime, with Three Lakes up just 24-21. But the Avengers' coverage tightened considerably after that, making the Bears' offence look like a drowning man in a bathtub as they forced numerous turnovers and stymied any Wynyard attempt to generate points. Three Lakes outscored Wynyard 27-6 in the third quarter to take a commanding 51-27 lead. The Bears never mounted a serious challenge after that.
"It was getting pretty close at the half, but I put out some leaders and they worked really hard to give us the lead," Parsons explained. "My Grade 9s (Heather Martin and Haley Olynuk) played especially well, but they shared the wealth. When our team is working together, the older players take care of the younger ones, and help to put them in a position to contribute and score some points."
This was the first district title for the Avengers girls since 2007. They earned a spot in the final thanks to a 37-20 win over the Humboldt Collegiate Institute (HCI) Mohawks earlier in the day. Three Lakes blasted out to a 24-12 lead at the half in that game, then put it on cruise control after that.
Wynyard took their semi-final with a thrilling 38-36 win over Highway 16 rivals the Foam Lake Panthers. Despite having an early lead in that one, Wynyard had to come back from a 23-28 halftime deficit in order to advance. A pair of free throws tied it 29-29 after three quarters, and the Bears surged ahead in the fourth on the strength of some strong work inside the Foam Lake key. The Panthers barely missed sending the game into overtime, however, as a layup attempt went off the rim with five seconds to play.
