THUNDER BAY -- The Dryden Eagles better figure things out in a hurry or their season is going to come to a crashing halt on Saturday morning.
The Eagles were overpowered and outmatched on Friday by the Superior Secondary School Athletic Association champion Hammarskjold Vikings, falling 75-18 to open the best-of-three NWOSSA championship.
Madison Wigwas led the way for the host Vikings – playing at Superior Collegiate and Vocational Institute because their home gym wasn’t available – hitting seven three-pointers in the opening half and finishing with a game high 25 points.
Sophomore Hana Whalen had 15 for Hammarskjold and said the team hasn’t won anything yet.
“Today I think we came in thinking we would win, but we need to come in just like any other game. It’s going to be a tough game and that’s what we’ve got to do tomorrow.”
It really didn’t matter where the shots were coming from. The Vikings dominated the outside game en route to a 41-9 halftime lead, then pounded the paint inside to start the third on a 19-1 run that punctuated a game that was decided early on.
“We were trying to get a lot points from in the key and then we had a lot of three-pointers that were dropping. Our points were just sinking,” Whalen said.
Vikings coach Bruno Corbin said he would have liked to have seen a stronger start, but other than that, there’s not much to complain about in a game decided by 57 points.
“I think mentally we weren’t prepared to play to our level. It took a quarter and after the first quarter I think we settled in and played a little bit more man to man,” Corbin said.
The key was for his team not to develop bad habits in the second half, needing one more win to secure a spot at provincials.
“I think what you’ve got to do is you’d like to execute certain things on offence and you want to balance things out. Our emphasis was we needed to look for inside opportunities and balance it out with outside shooting. Because most of the time we get our chances outside, but we need to distribute some chances inside,” Corbin said.
Sydney Charles had 19 for Hammarskjold.
Sarah Benson had nine to lead the Eagles.
Game 2 goes Saturday at 10 a.m. at Superior, with Game 3, if necessary, slated for 2 p.m.
