Neelin captures city championship

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This article was published 28/02/2023 (1012 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Chants of “Overrated” faded, giving way to equally boisterous boasts of “Neelin’s better.”

On Tuesday night, at least, that was the case. The raucous crowd got a show and the Brandon High School Basketball League varsity girls’ plaque found its third home in as many seasons. The Neelin Spartans upset the host Crocus Plainsmen 56-49 in Game 3 of the final.

“One thing with the girls the last three weeks or so, when they come into the gym, they work their tails off,” said Neelin head coach Carey Lasuik.

“… When we lost Game 1, I really felt Crocus was the better team that night. They had a better game plan than us. When we got back in the gym the next night, we game-planned specifically for Crocus.”

Trailing 13-9 after the first quarter, the Spartans answered in the second with an intense full-court press. If it didn’t create an immediate turnover, it disrupted the hosts’ offence and led to an 8-0 run to go up 17-13 before Alanah Gushulak stopped the streak with a pair of free throws.

Crocus didn’t hit a field goal until Colsie Lewis scored in the final minute of the half, while Neelin got to the rim and knocked down enough shots to lead 25-18 at halftime.

Both teams have been on both ends of comebacks over the past few seasons and know no lead is safe.

“Coach said ‘It doesn’t matter if we’re up by 15, we’re going to keep on them because they won’t give up,’” Neelin’s Dani Black said. “Neither will we.”

Gushlak crashed the glass and got her team going with a pair of put-backs but Kruz Wilson and Tyra Lasuik knocked down timely threes to keep the Plainsmen from getting too close.

Lasuik’s trey came right after her fourth foul with more than 14 minutes left in the game. A few players stepped up big off the bench for Neelin, including Rachel McCausland who scored to go up 39-27. Starting forward Madison Kwiatkowski hit two foul shots to give Neelin its biggest lead of the game at 41-28 but took her fourth foul and the team went silent. Crocus drew a bunch more fouls, seemingly taking free throws every 30 seconds and making half of each pair.

Neelin didn’t score for the last three minutes but led 41-32 after three. It certainly could have been closer.

“It’s the character of those people,” Carey Lasuik said.

“A lot of those girls came in never playing before until last year, some even this year. but they’re character people, they’re hard-working people … you gotta trust them and it’s nice to be able to trust them in those situations.”

The Spartans went back to their starters and attacked. While Black took her fourth foul on a charge, she responded with a coast-to-coast bucket. Then Karla Vlok and Kwiatkowski extended the lead to 53-38 halfway through the fourth.

Crocus immediately answered with a 6-0 run in 40 seconds, drawing a Carey Lasuik timeout.

The teams traded buckets, then the Plainsmen forced two quick turnovers in the last minute, scoring three points to make it 55-49 and drawing Black’s fifth foul.

But the Spartans got two big stops and bled the clock out. They played to win, as opposed to playing not to lose.

“Sitting out in the third quarter for a long time gave me time to reset, figure out what I needed to do and keep my hands off so I don’t foul out,” Kwiatkowski said.

Added Lasuik: “It came from making mistakes, learning from them. There are situations we’d been in tonight and the last few weeks that we went ‘if we keep this up, we can’t win the game. We gotta fix these turnovers, fix these fouls,’ and tonight the girls did a good job of correcting those errors.”

Tyra Lasuik led Neelin with 15 points while Black and Kwiatkowski added 10 apiece.

Rylee Wiebe had a game-high 18 for Crocus, with Kylie Kulman adding 13 and Gushulak posting 11.

“Both teams worked really hard. It’s tough to win games in February when both teams have been prepping for each other for four months,” said Plainsmen coach Adam Hartman, whose team is hosting AAAA regionals next week. “… Both teams played awesome, they just hit more shots.

“… We’ll take a couple of days, let them rest up and shift our mindset … to trying to get a win on that Thursday night (March 9).”

Neelin is off to a AAA provincial qualifier at Neepawa. It plays Springfield on Friday at 3 p.m. The winner plays a semifinal on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. The top three of eight advance to provincials.

Game 3 of the boys’ final between the Vincent Massey Vikings and host Spartans was still in progress at press time.

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com

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