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Comp senior girls claim bronze at Viking Invitational

Feb 13, 2017 | 11:00 AM

The North Battleford Comprehensive High School senior Vikings girls’ basketball team finished third out of 12 teams in their home tournament this past weekend, and their bronze medal win could help them in the run up to the provincial Hoopla tournament next month.

By beating Melfort out for the bronze, it’s likely the Vikings will be the top-ranked team in 4A and would also therefore host regionals leading up to Hoopla.

The better news for the Comp is they won bronze by eight points on the weekend without last year’s MVP, Mia Cottini, who has missed the past few weeks with a knee injury.

“It’s been awesome to see the other girls step up in her absence,” said Vikings head coach Bryan Cottini, also Mia’s father. “It’s actually probably been the silver lining.

“I’m assuming that when she comes back we’re going to just have another weapon to add to the equation.”

Without their star guard this weekend, the Vikings handily beat Meadow Lake and then Swift Current, a 5A team, to finish first in their pool and move on to face Estevan in the gold division semi-final.

Unfortunately, they lost by a single basket in what turned out to be a tight game the whole way through.

“It was a battle but they ended up sneaking it out by two on us,” Cottini said. “[On the final play], we had the ball and we got it in to one of our post players and she did have a shot to send it to overtime and it just didn’t happen to work out.

“I was a little worried that that loss would get the girls a bit little down, but they battled back and ended up beating Melfort for bronze. They’re probably one of the top teams in 4A so that was a good win for us.”

Mia Cottini should be healthy in time for a tournament in Prince Albert just after the February break.

That should certainly help the team offensively, as they have struggled with shooting from the outside, especially since teams are aware of her absence and, as Estevan did, switched to a zone defence to force the Vikings to shoot from the outside.

“Teams now have gone to collapsing the key and we’ve really had to rely on some other kids to start shooting,” Cottini explained. “In that [Estevan] game, we didn’t shoot very well from outside and they just packed the key on us.”

Without Mia Cottini, coach Cottini has also been pushing the full court press more than usual, which he said has been pretty successful.

“We were short a few players this weekend so we had some pretty tired bodies, but I think that’s been kind of the key to our season so far,” he said. “Sometimes, if you have lots of athletes but you’re lacking, maybe some skill — which right know we’re not maybe the best shooting team out there — it allows my athletes to go out and do what they can do. Pressing doesn’t require a lot of skill, it’s all heart and hustle.”

The gold medal winner at the Viking Invitational was the P.A. Carlton Crusaders, who beat Estevan in the final 62-55.

There is still over a month until regionals, which take place March 17 and 18.

Hoopla is scheduled for the following weekend. A ticket to Hoopla is earned if you finish in the top two at regionals.

 

 

Nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca

@NathanKanter11