After perfect season, Kweens basketball team set on provincial glory

Hapnot Collegiate’s senior girls’ basketball team has played 25 games this year. They’ve won all of them. This week, the team heads south, hoping to bring back Hapnot’s first provincial basketball title in over six decades.

The Kweens entered provincials ranked third in the province. The Hapnot squad has beaten all comers this season, including three teams ranked in the provincial top 10. Many of those wins have seen Hapnot put up at least 60 points - eight times, the team has scored 70 points or more. On Thursday morning, the Kweens took the first step at provincials, beating the seventh-ranked Souris Sabres 67-46 to reach the tournament semifinals.

The Kweens’ starting five during the recent zone 11 tournament consisted of the team’s five Grade 12 players - guards Kara Burroughs and Shanti Church, combo wing/forward Olivia Fernandes and forwards Katrina MacQuarrie and Gianna Watt. The pentet plays most of the biggest games for the Kweens together and they've been keystones to what has been, entering provincials, a perfect season.

The five seniors, along with their Grade 11 teammates, hadn’t had many opportunities to play together as a team before this year. The COVID-19 pandemic broke out when the five seniors were just freshmen and led to the cancellation of their sophomore season and large-scale reductions to what would have been their junior years on the court. Despite that, the five were positive this year would be special.

“I was pretty confident. I knew this season was going to be a good one,” said MacQuarrie.

“We haven’t got a chance to play with the girls yet because of COVID-19 and stuff - it's the first time the two age groups played together,” said Watt.

Many of the basketball players also play together on other Hapnot teams, which have seen success earlier this year. The Kweens’ soccer team finished third in provincials back in the fall, while the senior volleyball Kweens finished second in provincials in December, the school’s best showing ever in the sport. Nine players from the Kweens’ basketball team were part of that volleyball team, while seven played for the soccer team - the five seniors all played on both volleyball and basketball teams, while four played on the soccer team too. That cross-play has paid dividends in all three sports.

“You've been playing with the girls for two months before the basketball season, then even with soccer too. All school year, you're going to practices after school, you're hanging out with them, hotel rooms - I just felt like more of a relationship with them,” said MacQuarrie.

The chemistry is visible when the team plays. During the Kweens’ zone 11 tournament matchup against Cranberry Portage’s Frontier Collegiate - a game that, despite the rest of the tournament being held in The Pas, took place in Hapnot’s home gym - the team kept things loose. Bench players started chants for their teammates on court, joked around, shared encouragement. The atmosphere belied strong on-court play - the Kweens had 12 points before their opponents scored one, then went up 27-8 after one quarter. When Church fired a heat-check three-pointer that dropped straight through the hoop, the Kweens were up 50-10 before halftime. After a group sing-along to Rihanna’s “Umbrella” over the gym PA system, the Kweens’ second string played out the game en route to a 79-35 win.

The casual atmosphere on-court isn’t the same as off-court. This Kweens team checks game tape. This Kweens team scouts opponents at tournaments, tailoring their game plan accordingly. The Kweens have practiced or played more days than not throughout this season. The players have reformed big parts of their game - Burroughs has fixed her shooting form, while Fernandes says she’s changed her mindset on court. Watt said she is more ready for a leadership role than before. MacQuarrie used to drive the lane with her head ducked - she earned the nickname “Rhino” for that trait - but that’s changed. Church said the team as a whole plays to their strengths better.

The team’s 25 wins includes no fewer than five wins against Hapnot’s biggest regional rivals, The Pas’ Margaret Barbour Collegiate (MBCI), including wins in tournament finals and two wins over them at zone championships. The seniors had never beaten MBCI before this year - it was when they defeated them for the second time this year when things started feeling different.

“This age group, we’d never beat The Pas in basketball - not in Grade 8, not Grade 9, never. We were always so close. We were always so close, we weren’t getting blown out by them - we just couldn’t quite reach them. When we finally did it… it was great,” said Watt.

“One of the MBCI girls, when we were playing, mid-game, she just stopped and she was like, ‘I think it’s you guys’ year this year,’” said Burroughs.

Decades ago, Hapnot was a powerhouse in Manitoba high school basketball, picking up both boys and girls’ provincial banners throughout the 1950s. That included five straight provincial titles from 1951-56 for the Kweens. However, the school hasn’t seen a provincial title in basketball since 1960 - it hasn’t seen a provincial title in any team sport since winning a boys’ golf banner in 1996.

This Kweens roster may be the school’s best shot in decades at provincial glory. The team plays their first game at provincials March 16 - and don’t think they haven’t prepared.

“I watch a lot of other teams’ videos, seeing height differences and everything, the changes in the teams we’re going to end up meeting with… I’m really excited to see what we can do against teams that have the same things we do,” said Church.

“I think for me, it’s about practicing like provincials are tomorrow. It’s getting in that mindset, where you're going to practice as much as you can and as hard as you can, then it really pays off when you're playing the game,” said MacQuarrie.

“Seeing as we've gone undefeated and played some of those southern teams, I think we have a pretty good chance.”