THUNDER BAY -- The Hammarskjold Vikings can now officially be called a basketball dynasty.
Led by 13 points from 17-year-old senior Madison Wigwas, the Vikings on Monday overcame a slow start and vanquished the Westgate Tigers 41-33 in the senior girls varsity championship game, using home-court advantage to capture a record fourth straight Superior Secondary Schools Athletic Association crown.
The Vikings, who trailed 15-9 after the opening quarter, also got 11 points from 15-year-old Hana Whalen, who still had a year of junior varsity eligibility left, but instead made the jump up a level to play against more seasoned competition.
Little did she expect to help the Vikings make history.
“We really had to work hard to win this year because a lot of the varsity girls last year left. We had to work as hard as we could and I think we did that," Whaen said.
The final pitted the league’s two best teams against one another, the Tigers capturing the regular season crown with a 9-1 record, averaging more than 60 points a game.
But that one loss came at the hands of the Vikings, who also beat them in the final of the Tiger Fall Classic and edged them by two points in overtime in the A-side semifinal, earning them the right to host Game 1 of the championship round.
For the first 10 minutes it looked like the series might get pushed to a second game, the Tigers needing a win to stay alive in the elimination format.
Westgate jumped out to an eight-point lead early in the second, buoyed by a Samantha Read’s seven-point first quarter effort.
It was Wigwas and Whalen who righted the Vikings ship in the second.
Whalen drained a three to cut the Westgate lead to five, then dropped a hook shot to pull Hammarskjold within three.
Down 19-16, Wigwas and Lily Peng hit back-to-back threes and the Vikings took a 22-29 lead into the half.
“The difference was our defence. We defined who their shooters were and played against the shooters and we closed them down,” said Wigwas, explaining the turnaround in play.
Wigwas set the tone coming out of the break, firing up her third three-pointer of the evening.
Westgate’s Leititia Munroe pulled the Tigers even midway through the third, hitting from beyond the arc to tie the game 26-26, but the Vikings hit three straight buckets to pull ahead by six and never looked back.
The Tigers also lost Read early in the fourth to an ankle injury.
Brianne Walford led Westgate with nine points.
Hammarskjold coach Bruno Corbin said for him, it always comes down to defence. The game plan was to keep the Tigers under 40 points, and it worked.
“I think the girls were locked in on defence, were doing everything right and they picked the right time to do it,” Corbin said.
