The final weekend of Saskatchewan's high school version of March Madness is now over.
The North Battleford Comprehensive High School senior girls basketball team went into the championship ranked fourth and knew they were in tough against Moose Jaw Peacock in the semifinal game Friday.
"Our goal early in the year was to make it to HOOPLA, but we knew it was going to be tough to do," said Vikings coach Bryan Cottini. "As the year went on we started to realize that we were probably better than what we thought."
In the semifinal game, the Vikings trailed 18-15 at the end of the first quarter, but during the intermission the score was reportedly changed to 20-13, after removing two points from the Vikings and giving them to Moose Jaw.
The scorekeeper's error wasn't fixed and the Vikings were forced to trudge on.
They came out slowly in the second quarter and were down 21 points until the team called a timeout. The Vikings closed the deficit to 13 at halftime.
In the third and fourth quarters the Vikings battled back and had a last minute chance to win the game in regulation, but just missed the shot and forced overtime.
The Vikings led for three and half minutes in overtime, but eventually fell 68-64 to the top ranked Peacock. Moose Jaw moved to the championship game with the win while the depleted Vikings were knocked down to the bronze medal final.
"It was a pretty crazy, intense game. The crowd was into it. It was pretty fun," said Cottini.
Shania Magnusson led the Vikings with 24 points while Shallen McNabb had 14.
Magnusson led the Vikings once again in the bronze medal game Saturday with 18 points, but the Vikings weren't into the game after the upsetting loss the day before and lost 63-37 to Notre Dame.
"After the disappointment from the semifinals against Moose Jaw it was pretty tough to motivate them."
The Vikings were also playing with a shortened roster due to illness and injuries on the weekend.
Meadow Lake went on to beat Moose Jaw Peacock 72-69 in the provincial final.
The Vikings graduate three players, Zena Johnson, Amy Russell and Magnusson and Cottini expects Magnusson will continue to play basketball at the post-secondary level.
"Our future looks bright, I know we are losing three Grade 12s, but in the big scheme of Saskatchewan basketball I think we are still in the upper echelon and I look forward to maybe getting back to the show next year and creating some havoc for somebody," says Cottini.
