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▲By DESMOND MURRAYThe Dauphin Clipper girls provided an excellent finish to a basketball season that almost never began.On the first day of practise last December, only five girls showed up to try out for the team, Clipper captain Kim Wasylyshenrecalled.“I guess there’s not enough members to carry on, so we’ll have to fold,” Clipper coach Larry McDougall told the group, bringing a frown to the girls’ faces.“I was doing a little psyche job on them,” McDougall revealed. “I had a nucleus of five good kids that I knew were of a very good calibre. We just needed a couple more to go with them, so I was trying to get them to go out and do some recruiting.”Four more girls joined the team, and McDougall steered the Clipper girls through the best season Dauphin ever had.“The girls never stopped improving all season,” McDougall said. “They wanted to work and go as far as they could. As a result (the season) was very rewarding.”The season culminated Saturday as the Clippers captured theManitoba AA school championship with a 61-57 final victory over number one seeded St. Paul’s from Elie.As they had done all season, the Clippers dominated the inside game, led by Tanya Hudyma with 33 points.4 4 We were not able to shut down their inside game,” St. Paul’s coach Court Reyda said. 4 4That was the difference.” ( McDougall agreed.4 4The big difference is we hadthe inside shooting,” he said. “Tanya (Hudyma) had a great game, coming down with defensive rebounds, offensive rebounds and blocking shots.”4'Everyone worked hard to get out of their man-to-man press,” tournament MVP Hudyma said. “Once we did that, we played tough defence and the offence came together.”4 4 We weren’t able to get them to turn over the ball with pressure,” Reyda said. “We caused only twoi * vturnovers despite pressing them all over the floor. Their girls handled the ball well and moved it up.”“When we broke their full court press, I think they panicked,” Wasylyshen said.4'Everyone that they played against was unable to work against their press, and when we had success I think it caught them off guard.”Using the high-pressure defence, St. Paul’s outscoredKillamey 25-6 in the first quarter en route to a 62-32 semi-final victory, after crushing Gimli 93-28 in their opening game.In the final, St. Paul’s grabbed an early 17-12 lead, but the Clippers came back to take a 34-26 lead by half-time.“We strayed from our game plan and that really hurt us,” Reyda said.While foul trouble forced two Dauphin starters to sit out theTigers come up three points shortThe Swan Valley Tiger boys finished third in the Manitoba AA school basketball finals in Gimli Saturday, after they came up three points short of thechampionship.The Tigers lost 51-48 to Gimli in the semi-final Friday, before the home team cruised to a 71-57 championship victory over the University of Winnipeg CollegiateWesmen.Swan Valley won the third place final over Winkler 64-50. “That would appear to us tomean that we were three points out of winning the tournament,” Tiger coach Duane Whyte said.Whyte believed the wide margins in the final games suggested that Swan Valley could have beaten the Wesmen if they had upset Gimli.In the A school finals, the Grandview Spartan boys lost the consolation final 67-60 to Fort Alexander, while the Spartan girls lost 41-29 in the consolation semi-final against Niverville.The Tigers gave the champion Lakers their closest battle of the tournament, despite Swan Valley losing their leading scorer early in the fourth quarter.“The game was close throughout,” Whyte said. “We came out with the press and took them out of their rhythm. We came close, but we couldn’t put them away.”“Losing Shawn (Anderson) early was probably intregal to our loss,” Whyte said, pointing outthat Anderson scored only six points in the game, while he usually scores close to 20.Anderson scored 24 points to lead the Tigers over Winkler in the third-place final and 18 points in their opening game against Portage.In the third place final, Winkler and Swan Valley traded points for most of the game. “The final was decided with four minutes left,” Whyte said. “Their defence finally cracked and we got three quick baskets to put them away.”third quarter, St. Paul’s came back to close the gap to 48-45 going into the final ten minutes.Play in the fourth quarter went end to end until the Clippers used ball control in the final two minutes to seal the victory.The Clippers advanced to the final game after coming from behind to beat Steinbach 63-43 following a 71-54 win over Flin Flon.After Steinbach took a 16-12 first quarter lead, the Clippers exploded in the second and third quarters, outscoring their opposition 38-13 in the semi-final game.Hudyma led Dauphin with 27 points against Steinbach, while Jackie Chernecki added 16.AgainstscoredFlinFlon, Hudyma 24 points, while Wasylyshen collected 15.“It was a nice way to end off my last year,” said Wasylyshen. “It’s nice to win and bring home the trophy, especially because it’s the first time Dauphin girls ever won the provincials. This is a big thingfor us.”4‘I’m very happy for the girls. They’re very worthy champions,” McDougall said.He should know, after coaching the Dauphin boys to the championship in 1975, 1976 and 1980.
Newspaper Details
Dauphin Herald
Dauphin, Manitoba, CA
Tue, Mar 24, 1987
Page 21
Full Page
Clipped by
Brian S.
TX, USA 22 Sep 2019
Other Publications Near Dauphin, Manitoba
Dauphin Weekly News
Dauphin Spectator
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